Sean Patrick Greene

This book is not for everyone, nor even for most people. What began as a chance to write a collection of poetry with no constraints has transformed into something much deeper. This is a spiritual book written for the rational, secular thinker. It is also a philosophical book written for the dogmatic, theistic thinker.

It appears paradoxical that a single book could be written for two groups so different from each other. Their connection is not in the specific contents of their beliefs, but their fundamental assertion that they have the correct framework for which to interpret the world. In simple terms, they assume their beliefs make them superior to all others.

Together they stand: United in their arrogance.

I am, of course, speaking in generalities, and there are large segments of people with the kind of humility described throughout the book’s essays. In one sense, what is meant by the title “Off With His Head,” is to live with a self-selected humility in the face of the Great Mystery (i.e., one’s own existence), which most people in developed countries arrogantly, or ignorantly, presume has been demystified with the scientific method many times over.

There is a cosmic irony in this demystification process whereby the more one learns about the universe, the more branching questions arise out of one’s supposed knowledge. To pick just one example, it was Democritus, the Grecian philosopher, who philosophized the existence of the atom. The original Greek word, atomos, could be translated as “indivisible.” Yet, the question soon became, what makes up the atom? And of the things that make up the atom, what makes up those particles? And so, and so, ad infinitim.