How to Meet P. Diddy Book

On an especially busy morning, I took a phone call from a young St. Lucian woman now resident in New York. She had just completed what she considered a truly inspirational story, she said, would I please make her dream come true by publishing "millions and millions of copies for all those people out there just waiting to read it." After listening for several precious minutes to her reviews on her own work I said it all sounded quite captivating but there really wasn't much I could do about her dream until I'd had a chance to read her manuscript. Two mornings later FedEx delivered to my office the close to one hundred typed pages that comprised 'How to Meet P.Diddy' (a true story). I was impressed. As much by the fortuitous discovery that there actually existed a St. Lucian true to her word as by her demonstrated determination to see her project through all its stages. Later that day, while Newsmaker Live's Timothy Poleon was yet again inexplicably bashing the English language on TV, my mind turned to the manuscript lying on my bedside table. I had taken it home perchance to peruse a few pages when I had nothing better to do . The first page was headed 'Prologue' and started this way: "I've always felt the presence of God in my life. He has always been a guiding force and a true friend. I remember being seven years old and reaching out to him..." Andre Paul automatically came to mind as I continued reading: "My school was raffling an 'Incredible Hulk' lunchbox - 25 cents per chance and I had taken a chance. The night before the raffle I had a deep conversation with God. I cried my eyes out to him. I spilled my heart out before him. I said, 'God, I really need this lunchbox. Please, God, make me win.' "The following day, during morning assembly, the raffle took place. I listened eagerly, waiting for my name to be called. Moments later my prize was announced. I proudly stepped up on stage and accepted it. The following day I returned from playing in the school yard to find my lunchbox gone. I will never forget the grief I felt. But perhaps there was a lesson to be learned from that experience." From here the story suddenly shifts to present-day reality, with the author introducing herself as Nicole, who had met Sean 'Puffy' Combs aka. P.Diddy "on several occasions," kissed him "a total of seven times... embraced him twice and asked him to call her again and again..." Oh but dear reader aleady you're thinking, what a load of nonsense. The girl's obviously some kind of space cadet. Who'd want to read past the first page? As it turned out I would. And read not only the first and second pages but the whole darn shebang. At one ravenous sitting. Altogether fascinated, I had easily forgotten about the language butcher and gobbled up Nicole's manuscript. And now you're asking, But why, Rick? For crissakes, why? I'll tell you: The story centers on a 24-year-old La Clery woman, married with one child; a little girl. One afternoon, while watching the video for 'I'll Be Missing You," a Puff Daddy tribute to the late great Notorious BIG, she experiences something altogether supernatural the closest thing to an epiphany. It centered on Puff Daddy's "aura." So "magnetic" was the star's aura that even from the TV screen it had "penetrated" her. It had left her "so very curious" that finally she had been "overwhelmed by the idea of meeting him." At which point in the story I got to thinking, Yeah, right, good luck, sucker! Still, I followed her to freezing Brooklyn, from where, just a few hours after her arrival with her little daughter, she sets out with a similarly smitten relative on the trail of Puff Daddy. She experiences some promising moments when it seems her dream is about to materialize. But they are greatly outnumbered by heart-breaking major disappointments. No surprise, right? After all, we're not stupid. We know our La Clery princess is doomed to failure, even as she feverishly chases her fantasy. On the other hand, she is a believer, remember? She's not about to give up on her quest: to put into his bejewelled, manicured hands a song in his honor that she truly believes is destined to be a big hit, since it had been inspired by her "true friend and guiding force" who, when she was only seven had made her win that Hulk lunchbox. Remember? If she breaks down more than a few times under the crippling burdens of several disappointments, count on it, as many times she will recover, with ten times more determination than before, all thanks to her faith that cannot die. Which is the part that truly fascinated me, that made it impossible for me to put away the manuscript until I had read every neatly typed page. As I began to anticipate her falls, I bumped into the true meaning of evidence of things not seen: Nicole's unbending faith had made it impossible for our La Clery adventurer to accept every disappointment as nothing more than the devil's work, to be stubbornly set aside. What did it matter if he'd scored more touchdowns than had her "guiding force," whose presence she had first felt at age seven in that La Clery school yard? Her faith guaranteed that in the end victory would be hers. God would prevail. Not only would she meet Puff Daddy - turned P. Diddy, but he would love the song in his honor that she had written immediately following her miraculous tele-penetration. What's more, the song was destined to be a world-wide big hit. Her faith guaranteed it. Oh yes! It had never once entered Nicole's inspired mind that she'd been assigned her mission impossible by the devil. Or that her experienced disappointments had been God's unfathomable way of telling her to forget her doomed dream and concentrate instead on getting her a life; on bringing up her young child. When her husband had suggested he pursue studies in Canada while she took care of their young daughter in New York, without even considering the possible repurcussions on her family, Nicole had jumped at the idea. In due course she would abandon her little girl to her student father while Nicole devoted nearly all her time to P. Diddy. How did she make ends meet in Babylon-New York? You may rest assured the $500 she'd taken with her to the Big Apple had lasted less than a month. She had found herself several jobs, none of which she'd held for long. But then I don't want to give away the soul of this altogether fascinating story. Suffice it to say that right up to its denouement the author's faith remains strong, sustained by the war between God and the devil that in her heart Nicole never doubted would end with the glorious realization of her dream. Hallelujah! The ending is at once happy and sad. As with the believer in evidence of things not seen, it all depends on the reader's perspective. A small hint: "I've waited six long years for a business deal," Nicole writes. "I am willing to wait another six years. Or for as long as it takes for my dream to become a reality. I know P. Diddy will contact me to arrange an appointment. I BELIEVE in him." Notice dear reader, that it's the word 'believe' that Nicole now spells out in capitals. Not 'him'. Rick WayneRead More