I was raised in the typical American, working class environment, exposed to all the traditional American values of right and wrong. But somewhere along the way I was overwhelmed with all the realities of life which didn’t make sense by my way of thinking. They used to make sense—but I, like everyone else, had just accepted whatever was passed on to me by family, teachers, preachers and the media. And without even knowing what was happening; I became what my culture creates.

But as the years passed my perception slowly changed. I had chosen not to hunt as a teenager and not to eat animals by 21 years of age. By this time I had also chosen not to smoke or drink alcohol. Finally I decided to try to avoid everything which isn’t good for me. Most of this was for the perceived benefits to myself and my family; with a secondary desire to protect the animal kingdom and the environment.

Eventually, probably in my mid 40’s, there was a recurring, nagging thought on my mind pretty much every day: Why is so much wrong—and why do we tolerate it? This is the question which would redirect my life once again.

I realized the obvious answer had to contain some form of ‘because of the way we are’. So, at about 50 years of age I started writing, driven by the need to discover how much of the problem I had been. In the process I started making sense of why we haven’t done better and at around 55 years of age decided I needed to write a book about what seemed important regarding the nagging question residing somewhere in the back of my mind .

Along the way I wrote many commentaries on anything which seemed important to discover about myself and the others I share the planet with—and this is the basis for the essays I post on this blogsite. I invite you to share your intelligent, constructive feedback or comment on other subjects along the lines of ‘human condition’.