The Road to Redemption (21 page)

Plato, argues that Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. However he chose to stay for several reasons:

             
Firstly Socrates believed that to escape would indicate a fear of death. No true philosopher should have a fear of death.

             
Also he knew If he fled Athens his teachings would not be accepted in another country, as he would continue questioning everyone he met and undoubtedly also incur their displeasure.

             
Finally, having knowingly agreed to live under Athens laws, he had opened the possibility of being accused of crimes, by its citizens and judged guilty, by its jury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break his “social contract” with the state, which he considered would harm the state, and be contrary to his own principles and teachings

John saw Socrates as a true hero, who after he had been tried for heresy, refused to escape from prison, even when he had the opportunity and had died for his belief in his search for “the truth”. John also realized there was an important lesson here for him. “Search for the truth and you will find corruption everywhere. Be wary of exposing corruption, it could cost you your life.”

In reading about Plato, John discovered that along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western Philosophy and science.
Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric and mathematics.

The exact place and time of Plato's birth are not known, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens around 450 BC.

Plato founded one of the earliest known organised schools in Western Civilisation. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.

Plato taught that reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato put it:

"Until philosophers rule as kings, or those who are now called kings and leading men, genuinely and adequately philosophise... cities will have no rest from evils, nor, I think, will the human race”.

Like Socrates, Plato also suffered at the hands of his detractors. One of Plato's disciples, turned against him and being in a position of power, had Plato sold into slavery and almost put to death, in Cyrene, which was a city at war with Athens. Fortunately an admirer finally bought Plato's freedom and sent him home.

John studied how Plato had been more pragmatic than Socrates and was more ready to accept the reality of the material world.

Plato also had asked which is better, a bad democracy or a country ruled by a tyrant? He concluded, that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be in a bad democracy (since then all the people would be responsible for such actions, rather than one individual, committing many bad deeds).

Both Socrates and Plato postulated that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image, or copy of the real world. Physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms.  By this time John felt this was getting a bit heavy and perhaps best left for philosophy students to contemplate.

John was not as interested in the third member of the trio, Plato’s student Aristotle. While he found Aristotle to be a great student of logic and to have had a tremendous knowledge of the natural sciences, he felt his attitude towards women was misogynistic and condescending and therefore clouded some of Aristotle’s findings.

On concluding his study of these great philosophers John asked himself a fundamental question, that he had never thought about in the past,

“What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Certainly Aristotle had a lot of knowledge but did he have wisdom? After thinking about it John decided that,

“Wisdom is knowledge about the Good, or right relations, between all that exists”.

This was more in line with Socrates and Plato.

After his study of the great philosophers, John went on to study the great religions of the world, and like Alice’s mother Jane, was particularly drawn towards Buddhism, with its common sense approach and lack of miracles to believe in. Then on to ancient civilisations. He became particularly fascinated with ancient Egypt and how the pharaohs set themselves up as gods, to control the people. He also looked at some of the great tyrants of history including, Hitler, Stalin and even Napoleon.

For the first time John was thinking about life and what is important and what is not. He was realizing, that in the past he had been so much into material possessions, he had never had the time to think about life and what it was all about. He was now giving himself the education he had denied himself in the past, due to his desire to get ahead in the business world.

Mostly, he read either in the breakfast room or on the front veranda. While he had noticed Bill drive in and out of his home a few times, there had been no sign of Alice or Susie. Claire seemed to be spending her time with the girl next door, rather than Susie. Come to think of it, he saw very little of his own kids. Every time he tried to talk to them, they made excuses to get away from him. Evidently Audry had told them to stay away from him as much as possible, due to his “condition”.

Audry seemed to be thriving in her role as his carer and controller of the household.  She was in charge and reveling in it. Whereas in the past, she had been subservient to him, now she was in charge of everything. Each day, John, through his reading and weekly sessions with Dr Rush, was becoming less and less like George, while Audry was becoming more and more like her father. They were drifting further and further apart. Theirs was now a marriage in name only.

John often thought about Alice and was now beginning to realize how their affair had totally changed him. He could see how Alice was a free spirit, while he had been a slave to the business world and acquisition of material possessions. He no longer cared about having a bigger home, with a tennis court, or that the garden and house were not perfect. Although looking at it, Audry was still keeping everything in perfect order.

He no longer needed to show off to other people. Anyhow, Audry was keeping everyone away. Not even George had visited. In fact he saw more of the local librarian and Dr Rush, than anyone else. He had noticed Dr Rush seemed to have a bounce in her step and was continuing to wear her hair down and her contact lenses. He also noticed she was wearing much smarter clothes and often wore a lovely gold necklace. When he had asked her about it, she said her boyfriend had given it to her.

The sessions with Dr Rush were becoming briefer and he was finding his homework less and less confronting, as he worked through the major issues in his life.

His sex life with Audry was now non-existent, but she didn’t seem to mind. He was finding her less and less attractive anyway; the more she assumed power over the household.

The days were drifting by and apart from Audry; he was taking everything more casually. He was finally finding some inner peace.

Chapter 22  Graham Again

Late one afternoon the phone rang. Audry answered and reluctantly passed it over to John. It was Graham. Audry knew Graham and his wife from way back in their private school days, but had not had much to do with them in recent years. Little did she know that this was largely due to Graham’s relationship with John and him not wanting to mix his penthouse friends, with his wife’s establishment friends.

Although Audry and George had totally taken over the real estate business, she knew nothing of the property amalgamation deal John and Graham had been doing together. John had kept this totally separate from the other real estate business.

Graham was in high spirits,

“John you little beauty. We’ve killed it you old son of a bitch. While some of us have been in hospital, others like me have been working. We got an offer today for $10 million. What do you say to that old boy?”

“What about the relatives waiting for the probate and the old man with the knife sharpening business, who didn’t want to move?” inquired John.

“All done old son. The probate came through weeks ago, just like you said and the relatives couldn’t wait to sell. With the other one, the old knife sharpener’s daughter got him to sign all the papers to move. So it’s all done. We have to celebrate you old son of a gun.”

“Well I don’t know,” said John. He really wasn’t in the mood for one of Graham’s parties especially after the last time when Graham had the fight with his mistress.

“No we have to celebrate. Just the two of us. I won’t take no for an answer. I’m at the penthouse. Get your arse over here pronto.” It was almost a demand.

“What about Francis, won’t she be there,” John asked, still uncertain.

“No, she’s gone. We split after that last party you were at when she poured the beer over me. It will just be the two of us. So get here pronto.”

“Well I guess so,” said John, still reluctant.

What with the hospital and sitting around at home reading books, he hadn’t been out for a long time. It would be nice to get away from Audry for a while.

“OK, I’ll see you shortly.”

As soon as John got off the phone Audry was at him,

“What was that all about John?” she demanded.

“Oh nothing,” he replied. This was one part of his business dealings he was not going to let Audry and her father get their hands on.

“Graham has just sold some land he was developing and wants to have a drink with me to celebrate.”

“I didn’t know you still kept in touch with him,” said Audry quite suspiciously.

“I saw him just before I went into hospital, he told me about what he was doing then,” parried John. “So now he wants to celebrate with me.”

This seemed to satisfy Audry,

“Well he mustn’t have got any sense out of you then. You were out of your tree before you went into that nut house. See that you’re not too late. You are still recovering.”

With that Audry left the room.

John went upstairs and got dressed. It was a while since he had put on his casual clothes and it felt good to be nicely dressed again. For the past few months he had been wearing jeans and a t-shirt every day. He looked at himself in the mirror. Not bad he though, he had lost a few pounds during his ordeal and looked all the better for it.

“Can I have the keys to the car Audry?” He had not called her Hon, since he came home from hospital.

“You can take my Mazda, John,” she said handing him the keys.

“Just drive carefully, we don’t need any more trouble thanks to you.”

“No trouble,” muttered John, as he headed for the garage.

By the time he got to the penthouse it was getting dark. Graham greeted him at the door with a glass of Moet in hand.

“John I’ve got to give it to you. You set that deal up perfectly. It all came together even when you were in hospital. I see a big future for us. Come in and sit down. The world is your oyster tonight.”

Graham had obviously had a few before John arrived. He went on,

“So tell me old son, what happened. I heard you had whiplash but Sunnydale is a psyc hospital isn’t it?”

“You wouldn’t want to know Graham. Lets just leave it at that,’” said John insistently.

“OK, old boy anything you say.” Graham paused, “So what have you been up to?”

“Not much, just staying home and reading.”

“God, old boy, that's not the John I know. Its about time you had some excitement in your life.”

Graham filled his glass and went on,

“John, you and I are great together. You have the gift of the gab that I haven’t got and I have the access to finance, you haven’t got. It’s a marriage made in heaven. We are going to go places!!!”