To know me, it’s necessary to know my parents. My father’s family emigrated from Austria to the United States in the early 1900’s when he was a small boy. He came in at Ellis Island and, subsequently, was the first member of his family to go to college, a momentous event. So my father could afford to attend Columbia University where he majored in electrical engineering, his brother chose to forego college in order to help pay for tuition and expenses. My father made up the difference by making umbrellas for which he was paid one penny apiece. Upon graduation during World War I, he immediately enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was wounded in France. He returned to the United States where he spent five years as an ambulatory patient recovering in a hospital in the Southwest. To relieve the boredom, he built an x-ray machine for the hospital, and the doctor in charge taught him everything he knew about medicine. That was the beginning of my father’s career in radiology and medical healing, utilizing exacting logic and exacting parameters. Then he met my mother. Her thinking was on the other side of the coin. She was a feminist at a time when few were, generally marched to the beat of different drummer, and ultimately demonstrated that she was a natural mental healer. The most logical explanation I can offer for their decision to marry is that they planned it in connection with their own development before they got here.

As a result of that union, I was born in Tucson, Arizona, the product of a “left-brained” father and a “right-brained” mother. After writing this book, I understand now why I originally picked them to be my parents.

My mother nicknamed me ‘Skip,’ which sticks to this day. I was an incredibly curious, mischievous, almost incorrigible little kid. But everybody thought I was cute and it seemed I could get away with almost anything. I had my first Harley in high school. At that time, my uncle, the one who helped finance my father’s college education and who had become a highly successful businessman, gave me my first set of drums. I was good at math, good at music and loved flying through the wind on my Harley. I still play the drums (jazz), still have a Harley, and it’s my good luck electronic calculators were invented. Fortunately, my wife, a talented interior designer and artist, still thinks I’m cute.

I went to college because I was supposed to. About my junior year, I suddenly realized I was there to get an education. My father brought that home to me in a loving, direct and logical way. Fundamentally, I could start performing or the economic assistance and the college life were over. That resulted in a certain epiphany and, essentially, I earned straight A’s after that through a bachelor’s and master’s degree. A chip off the old block, I immediately joined the armed forces and spent two years on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army, following which I went to law school.

I was Editor-in-Chief of the law review, graduated with honors and enjoyed a successful 35-year career as a practicing attorney in Phoenix. Having become acquainted with the works of Joseph Campbell during that time, I took his advice and morphed into the author who has written Harvest of Illusion (with assistance in many different ways from all those named on the acknowledgement page), which is the first of many books I intend to write.

I truly hope you enjoy the adventure within the pages of Harvest, and that it comes alive for you as it has for me.