As has been the case with quite a number of my books as of late, they are selections from my magnum opus on a particular topic important to me at the time. The selected pieces of writing are always arranged in alphabetical order. Postscripts are added, but they become parts of the wider collection under their own Roman numeral. This has worked very well for quite a few years. Prefaces were often written by my publishers, sometimes with my obliging help. My last book is an exception, though.[1] It has a preface all my own that cannot be found anywhere in the collection. Entitled “Preface” and dated August 5, 2014, it marks the day when the book has taken its final shape a couple of months before going to the printer. And here it is in its entirety:

Climate change is upon us. And it is getting ever more dramatic. There is no part of the planet that is spared from its ravages, either. What is to be done? This selection from my Residua is a witness to the increasing urgency with which this question has been coming up since the turn of the millennium. More important, it is a witness of the futility of all the answers put forward to date. Survival is all we face at present. Period. Preparing for it as best we can is the only course worth pursuing from now on. But the future is bright in spite of the untold horrors to come. In the fullness of time, the survivors will experience a homecoming of sorts. No matter how few, they will know their way around their new world, for it will be the world of their ancestors. And that is this book’s happy message. Hooray![2]

So, the missing preface is a part and parcel of my book at long last. Phew! Although this is a rather lame way to plug a gaping hole, it still makes me reasonably comfortable under the circumstances. The next time I put together a selection of my writings, I will have to think about the preface quite carefully. Introducing it into my writings some four months later will not do twice in a row. Perish the thought. Luckily for me, I do not see many books in the future. If everything goes according to plan, there will be no more than two of them: one on cave art and another on yoga. The former is already finished while the latter is still a pipedream. As far as my selections are concerned, that will be it. All the others will be left to the intrepid reader. Ha-ha!

Footnotes

1. What is to Be Done? Climate Change for Beginners, Belgrade: HESPERIAedu, 2014.

2. Op. cit., p. 7.