That's What Books Are For... To Travel

Isolation Offered Its Own Form Of Companionship

While The Astronauts, Heroes Forever, Spent Mere Hours On The Moon, I Have Remained In This New World For Nearly Thirty Years. I Know That My Achievement Is Quite Ordinary. I Am Not The Only Man To Seek His Fortune Far From Home, And Certainly I Am Not The First. Still, There Are Times I Am Bewildered By Each Mile I Have Traveled, Each Meal I Have Eaten, Each Person I Have Known, Each Room In Which I Have Slept. As Ordinary As It All Appears, There Are Times When It Is Beyond My Imagination." (from "the Third And Final Continent")

For That Story, I Took As My Subject A Young Woman Whom I Got To Know Over The Course Of A Couple Of Visits. I Never Saw Her Having Any Health Problems - But I Knew She Wanted To Be Married.

But She Has Gathered That Americans, In Spite Of Their Public Declarations Of Affection, In Spite Of Their Miniskirts And Bikinis, In Spite Of Their Hand-holding On The Street And Lying On Top Of Each Other On The Cambridge Common, Prefer Their Privacy.

A Bicultural Upbringing Is A Rich But Imperfect Thing