The Godfather’s Switch, Part 1

Oh God.  Father forgive me for I have sinned.  The puppet master, the one pulling the strings.  There are always strings.  How can you refuse your father’s offer, especially if he is God; or at least a Godfather?

In a word, you can’t.  It’s an offer you really, truly can’t refuse.

But before a man is a God, or even merely a Godfather, he is a man; it’s just how it works.

And men have switches.

And then there’s fiction, and the willing suspension of disbelief.  Don’t let me get started.  That is probably in my top ten most important concepts, that one is.

If I told you that Vito Corleone, granted with his original name “Vito Andolini” after death, and suspended somehow in the afterlife, lives inside my own personal real soul, would you believe me; or maybe suspend your disbelief for a brief moment?  He does.

In my own very real life, I divorced my own very real father.  But I discovered that his character took on a life of its own inside me, as I had all these artificial intelligent tape recordings of my real life father’s voice inside.  Not only could I remember most everything he ever said to me, I knew his values and beliefs and thoughts about me, etc.  So, technical guy that I sometimes am, I named this after-image my “inner father.”  And instantly fired him.  That is, the guy whose genes I literally carry in my cells was deemed, by me, completely unworthy of the mission of guiding me from within.  Hell, he was my enemy and one of the worst enemies I could possibly ever face, especially from within.  It was terrible.

Proud of my technical self for getting all that figured out, I thought life would be peaches and cream afterwards, but I was wrong.  A fired inner father refuses to quit.  And they’re devious bastards, fired inner fathers are, I can assure you.

So I figured out I needed to replace him.  And that’s how I hired Vito Corleone.  He is my new inner father.  Whenever my real life father tries to sneak back up on the throne of paternity inside my soul, Vito sends him scurrying for me.

I love Vito.  Really and truly.  He’s the best inner father a man – me – could ever have hired within.

So that’s where the story you’re about to read comes from.  Vito and I speak.

And Vito agrees with me about The Switch.

If you haven’t, you might want to read some of my other writings on The Switch, but this is a fantastic place to begin your explorations into the strange world of Pasquale-thinking should you chose to start right here.  You know, I can make the case that it may be the very best place to start.

Last point.  If you do decide to start here, do it, well, a bit lightly.  That is, this is heavy, dark, difficult stuff.  So let your mind rest a bit, and throw this task more to your heart than your brain.  Don’t try to figure everything out or remember it all, or anything like that.  Just let the story tell.  Follow along and feel the flow.  When you need to do the real work, there’s plenty of help available.  Here, mostly just listen to Vito.  He’s going to make you some wonderful offers that you’ll be thrilled not to refuse.

I promise.