Thanks for the compliment and recommendation, PurpleClover. When any of us selects a book, we are making a choice about what sort of journey we want to go on with the protagonist and I always look for one that will help me expand my horizons without too much strain on my sanity. Through memoirs, I’ve been all over the world, been male and female, a warrior, a scholar, a paraplegic, Black, Asian, Iranian. I love the journey, and love all the things I can learn about the human condition. I want to keep stretching my view of the way people think and feel.

Thanks for the compliment Ruth. Yes, belief systems are so profound. When I first read Irvin Yalom’s textbook Existential Psychology, I struggled to see how he could use them in therapy. But now that I’m studying memoirs, I see that they are everywhere. Everyone is driven by a belief system, and very often, without seeing it.

Your question reminds me of the light bulb used to heat the “blank” paper filled with words written in invisible ink. that makes the invisible visible.

I think someone like you could really appreciate the struggles he faced. He had one line of sight and could only see what was in it. There is a movie produced based on his book. I think it’s called In the Blink of an Eye.