"My faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear," Overture, p. 3.

"Pammy would step over her mother on the way out the door and arrive at Shelly's house just as I did. At my house, no one was passed out on the floor, but my mom was scared and Dad was bored and my little brother was growing fat and my older brother was being called by the siren song of the counterculture," Overture, p. 13.

"I had no big theological thoughts but had discovered that if I said, Hello?, to God, I...