In the degree that we remember and retell our stories and create new ones we become the authors, the authorities, of our own lives.

I think we're inevitably going to be depressed when we focus the major part of our energy and attention on something that doesn't give us meaning, only material things.

What happens if I try to build a life dedicated to avoiding all danger and all unnecessary risk?

To a large extent, the aged in our society are ghettoized. Old people are seen as useless, bypassed by history, old-fashioned, in the way. So, not surprisingly, when we reach the official mark of old age, we're supposed to go gently into that good night, to get off center stage and hand over the spotlight. Old age is also surrounded by shame - the myth of impotence and inability.

What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask.

There has always been a part of me that saw wilderness and risk-taking as the path to freedom.

Every time I come across a rattlesnake on my farm I initially react in fear and am tempted to kill it. Then I realize I wouldn't want to live in a world where all wild things - without and within - are domesticated.