Readage: The Beatin’ Path – A Lyrical Guide to Lucid Evolution

This book – The Beatin’ Path – A Lyrical Guide to Lucid Evolution  by John B. Lane crossed my path via my dear friend Anile aka Girlfriday. She worked on the design and thought that this series of writing was right up my alley.

She was right.

To begin, the majority of books that I’ve been reading these days have been in the death, grief and Buddhist space – so the opportunity to read something creative was quite appealing. I must preface, highlight, skywrite, bold, all caps the word “creative” when using it to describe The Beatin’ Path. The book explodes with… with… stories of existence, questions around morality, questions around mortality, mentions of dog fucking, deep thoughts, silly musings that lead to deep thoughts – and that’s just the first chapter. It’s like someone took Tom Robbins and threw him in a blender with Huxley, Orwell, Kant and Darwin, and then added a dash of the Buddha with a drop of the essence of a holy-rolling tent-revival preacher on acid.

The tongue-twisting wordplay that is present in this book demonstrates Lane’s whimsical storytelling abilities. Kicking off with a piece titled “Mantra for a Panther in a Room Full of Metronomes,” it’s clear that the reader is in for a ride. The mundane, profane, abstract, religious, political, financial, artistic – it’s all knit together in a flowing series of written stories that provoke inquiry and present a new way of viewing them via the author’s kaleidoscopic-colored glasses. Yeah. It’s a trip!

Sitting with this book was like visiting a strange new friend who could spout off a myriad of facts on the most random of topics. It’s like reading a random and poetic version of the encyclopedia. In this time of Trump, The Beatin’ Path is a fascinating book to encourage readers to evaluate facts, reality, alt-reality and what we accept as fact, truth and what we wish to believe.

The artwork helps to accent this wordplay and employs old-world style illustrations to lead the reader further down the rabbit hole. Or maybe they’re used to help ground us in some sense of reality?

 

It’s a book of opposites. Dark and light. Sacred and profane. Serious and silly. Then there’s everything that lies between these extremes. Our relationships with the world, each other and ourselves are all topics for examination and fair game. The book is really about finding your truth based on what the author presents. It’s all about where we find ourselves on The Beatin’ Path.

To find out more about this book check out https://www.thebeatinpath.com/ You’ll find an awesome playlist here, a study guide and all sorts of treats.

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