If the image one holds of one's self contains elements that don't square with reality, one is best advised to let go of them, however difficult that may be.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me. The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.

But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came

In America, it is difficult to be your own man.

I am the me I choose to be.

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.