Book excerpt: At least twice in the past thirty years I have described to my grandson, Aaron, what I consider to be a remarkable fact of personal history. If I stand with my arms outstretched and hold my right hand with my daughter Jans left and she holds her right hand with Aarons left and then my mother, Lena, holds my left hand with her right hand and my grandfather James Henry Andersen, her father, holds her left hand with his right hand, there will be five immediately related people standing in a row stretching one hundred years. My grandfather was born in 1879 to my left and my grandson was born in 1979 to my right. I find this fact starkly but exhilaratingly interesting from a number of different perspectives.