Читать книгу Brother John - August Turak - Страница 10

Introduction

In 2004, a former student urged me to enter the John Templeton Foundation “Power of Purpose”

Essay Contest. Answering the question, “What is the Purpose of Life?” in 3,500 words or less was

daunting enough, but I quickly discovered that I was also a novice writer going up against thousands

of professionals and previously published material. And just to keep it interesting, by the time I heard

about the year-long contest, the deadline was a mere ten days away.

I wasted several days writing furiously and getting nowhere. Then another former student came to

my rescue: “Why don’t you just write up that story about Brother John and his magical umbrella

that you love telling so much?” One week later, and only hours before the deadline, I hit “send” and

submitted my essay. I was proud of Brother John. While I was quite certain I would not win the contest,

I felt I had, almost accidentally, finally said something important about Brother John. Something that

I had wanted to say for a very long time. Then, I forgot all about it.

Eight months later, I answered the phone, only to discover that I was on a conference call with five

or six people from the Templeton Foundation. They seemed to be trying to tell me—all at once, as

I recall—that Brother John had won the $100,000 grand prize! Initially, I suspected that friends were

playing a practical joke, but as the call devolved into a seemingly endless loop of me screaming “No!”

as they shouted “Yes!” I was finally convinced that Brother John had won.

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