NOTE:  This site will undergo extensive renovation soon.  :>)  Feel free to browse the TABLE OF CONTENTS.  Most of this material is more than ten years old.  I will move a lot of this into an archive, and begin editing to make what will seem more helpful, from my perspective.  There are lots of new thoughts coming, using the broad sweep of the past to explain the present and illuminate the future . . .

Welcome to the home of the happy thinker!!!  This site is motivated by the sentiment expressed many years ago by a student of life:

 "I have observed that all who acquire enduring riches have ascended the ladder of opulence with two outstretched hands; one extended upward to receive the help of others who have reached the peak, and the other extended downward to aid those who are still climbing." (Napoleon Hill)

A related sentiment by Sir Isaac Newton:

"If I have seen further than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."

Making use of these thoughts, I have never thought that I was a great person.  But I know that I have been privileged to learn some really great things, some from the most brilliant minds of any age, and some from unexpected persons of no special repute.  The purpose of this site is to share freely something of what I have learned.  Bon appetit!!!