Book excerpt: This book is a journal spanning three decades, 1964-1998, and more. It is also a series of essays written during that period. Essentially, it traces one individual's development as a person. This book did not come about in the manner of most books: as the product of a long-range plan. Rather, as is sometimes the case with a child, it just happened. It was born of a compulsion to write. As I am neither gregarious nor extroverted, this journal served as a repository for my innermost feelings during those long years. Somewhere along the way I developed the notion that perhaps others might want to see what I had written: I felt much of it was important. I believe this book speaks to everyone, regardless of who they are.