About eight years ago, a prominent law professor at the University of Michigan gave me a book to read. It has been sitting on my shelf since then, unopened. Not an imposingly large book or difficult book. Not even a scholarly book.

It’s a paperback called Ordeal and it was written by Linda Lovelace. I just finished reading it. Knew nothing about her or it except that she was a porn star. Now I know plenty. Her story is about victimhood and how her entire porn career developed against her will. Everything seemed to snowball. Her fear. Her submission. Her degradation. Others’ willingness to cooperate in her victimhood. Eventually she came to find her own power after several attempts at “escape” from the man who controlled her for years.

So I was just talking to a wise, spiritual friend who posed this: Why read it now? Were there any synchronicities?

HaHa. Like, you mean, maybe feeling life spinning out of control? Like everyone is controlling my fate but me? Like I’m not steering the ship anymore? Nah.

What makes you ask that?