Present Experience Triggering Insight into the Past

As is the case with a great deal of non-fiction writing, many of the essays in this collection use consideration of present-day experiences as springboards and/or triggers for both contemplation and analysis of the past. Each of these essays is, in essence, a mini-memoir of sorts, with the author using insights and perspectives gleaned over time to come to fuller and deeper understanding of himself, of the people around him, and of the world in which they all live. Present day experiences initiate excavations of the past, as the author digs through layers of his personal history to find a core truth that time has given him the metaphorical eyes to actually see and comprehend. In some ways, he is an archaeologist of memory, sifting through decades of personal history to find those artifacts of encounter and relationship, confrontation and outcome...