I had a little insight into life that most kids probably didn't have. My mother was a schoolteacher, and my father was a social worker. Through his eyes I saw the underside of society.

I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air.

I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers.

You can't travel the back roads very long without discovering a multitude of gentle people doing good for others with no expectation of gain or recognition. The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. Some people out there spend their whole lives selflessly.

You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.

I didn't know what narcissism was until I beheld my own naricssus.

I would like to explore some side roads in life while I am still in good health and good spirits.