Foreword from Why Knot?
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
I don’t think outside the box. The very notion of “the box” is an illusion that limits the range of topics, squashes curiosity and creativity, and precludes innovative solutions. Please join me on my journey of exploration.
Dream November 26, 2022
During a press interview, I was asked about my education and IQ. How could I write about such a wide range of subjects?
I replied that that was irrelevant. I dared to do what I did because of the confidence my parents gave me as a child. They taught me to question assumptions and challenge authority, to respect common sense and to find my own answers in my own ways.
Interpretation
I don’t think they did that deliberately. I was their only child. To them, from birth, I was a miracle. So, of course, I challenged everything they believed in. I was not an easy child or an easy student.
When I was 12, I tried to write my own version of the Trojan War story, in rhyming couplets. When I was 13, I brought to Sunday school class a list of my beliefs, the core of my personal religion. When I was 15, I started keeping a list of every book I read and added to that what I remembered reading starting at age 12. I’ve kept adding to that list ever since. It now includes over 3700 books.
My beliefs have changed radically over the years, and what I wrote when I was 12 and 13 looks silly today. But my self-confident style in dealing with the unknown and the unknowable is much the same.
