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Emails to Jamie "A True Story" by Richard Dale Lode CreateSpace
book review by Libby Grandy
"All my life I have felt that the common denominator that permeates all of human endeavor was the need to love and be loved."
In Richard Dale Lode's new books, Jamie and Hunter share their thoughts through a series of e-mails regarding their spiritual beliefs. Jamie is a Buddhist, Hunter a Christian. In the first email, Jamie thanks Hunter for his interest in seeking a "Truth Study Partner." Hunter responds that the previous year he had purchased and become fascinated with Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now.
The dialogue continues between the two spiritual seekers. Jamie recommends reading the Tao Te Ching, Thoreau's translation of the Upanishads in the United States and the transcendentalists of New England such as Emerson, Wordsworth, and Tennyson. She asks Hunter if he has ever heard of Mithraism, the major Pagan religion at the time of Christ. Hunter recommends that Jamie read the "Gospel of Thomas." She offers quotes from the Bodhidharma. Soon, Hunter finds himself stepping outside of his cultural conditioning, and the emails become increasingly profound as a spiritual camaraderie develops between the two seekers. In email #25, an in-depth discussion of A Course in Miracles begins and continues throughout the rest of the book.
The correspondence ends with Hunter wishing Jamie well on the path she has taken, leaving the readers with the desire to explore their own beliefs and follow their own paths. The author, who claims to have an understanding of all religions, perhaps could have presented a more engaging narrative in story form, instead of the diary-like scroll of a focused e-mail exchange. Regardless, Emails to Jamie is one of those books that a reader may choose to read more than once and possibly only a few pages at a time, in order to understand its thought-provoking content.