Traveling Backward

TRAVELING BACKWARD is a highly original philosophic romp beyondthe youth of old age with a quixotic journalist turned mom turned academic turned peasant. Its a kind of light-hearted guide to the wisdom of the agesfrom Socrates to existentialism and beyondgleaned during a struggle to recover the images that fi rst touched her heart and to answer two questions: Who am I really? Where does the world come from? Its a colorful, occasionally poignant, journey that could helpyou look at life through the reverent eyes of a child again.

GLIMPSES OF TRAVELING BACKWARD :
You two remind me of Peter Pan. Trouble is, Im not sure which one of you is Peter Pan. Well, I was taken aback.But my mate took action. Muttering something negative about fairy stories, he headed for the door and disappeareddown the hall. I started to follow him but changed my mind. Instead, I headed for the public library to reread PeterPan. Had I missed something? (Elayne Wareing Fitzpatrick)

Human life indeed all life is poetry. Its we who live it, unconsciously, day by day. . . Yet in its inviolablewholeness it lives us, it composes us. . . We are works of art, but we are not the artist. . . Dare everything, neednothing. (Lou AndreasSalome)

I relate to [AndreasSalomes] passionate struggle for truth, to her ultimate reverence for all life, and to her desireto enjoy intellectual friendships with a variety of men, free of sexual overtones. (Fitzpatrick)

I was discovering that, deep down, I didnt really take to popular culture, crowds, and bustling cities, regardless ofmy curiosity, regardless of my journalists delight in writing about all of it. (Fitzpatrick)

If you cant change the world, change worlds. (St. Francis of Assisi)

If I were ever to choose a place away from my country, it would surely be a Greek island, outside Athens. . . InGreece, I feel completely at home. Maybe thats because, as the poet Shelley said, Were all Greeks. Our laws, ourliterature, our religion, our arts have their roots in Greece. (Fitzpatrick)

Back straight and head held high, he would place his left arm on my right shoulder, snap his fingers and lead mein the graceful, deliberate movements of the Zorba dance, accompanied by a recording of Mozarts 40th playedon the bouzouki. This against a backdrop of tinkling goat bells and singing monks gathered in a distant church.(Fitzpatrick)

Many of the highs and lows in my life. . . have resulted from conflict born of the struggle between my own strongloving, nesting needs and my equally strong needs for freedom to think, to adventure, to discover, to express myself.(Fitzpatrick)

All parts of this one organic whole this one God are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all incommunication with each other, influencing each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. (Robinson Jeffers)

How did matter happen that makes the stars and cool planets and living beings? And how did the space happen thatcontains the stars and planets?. . . Much is still very hypothetical. Much is still unknown. Much, we will never know.. . Life is struggle, pain and suffering. But it is also extraordinarily glorious creativity. (Dr. Kai Woehler)

Like Socrates, Ive experienced an inner voice that usually lets me know when Im about to go off-track, and Ivecome to believe, with Kant, in a moral law within. (Fitzpatrick)

Nature wonderful and awe-inspiring as it is cant participate in a verbal dialogue, cant exchange and exploreideas with the human mind. We can relate to the animals, the birds, the insects, the fish, and the flora with our mostprimitive instincts and feel joy, spiritual ecstasy in so recognizing our kinship. Yet nothing in Nature can comparewith the human need for a warm fire, a fine meal, intellectually stimulating conversation, a good story or two, and acomfy b