back cover text:
When science came into my life, it offered a way of framing up answers to the sorts of questioning, observing, and information-gathering that fit with my nature and upbringing.
I didn't view it as a Prince Charming, a love who'd sweep me off to a life not possible otherwise. Science was a taskmaster that needed the best, brightest, hardest workers it could get, whatever shape they came in. I could rise to this and contribute.
At least, that was the understanding and the plan. It's a long story, what happened. Nobody's the wiser for it, except me. This saddened me for a long time, because I'd given my all for something other than what I got. And I was lonely in my abandonment.
In time, I've come to see the gifts in what I've experienced and learned. I wouldn't trade them for anything, because, through my science studies, I learned some tough truths about how nature works, how people behave, and how human systems operate the fundaments of all our lives. When we get clear on these things and how to work with with them, we can truly begin to live intelligently on the planet.
And so, in the isolation that resulted from my learnings and is requisite to them, I write ....