As the years flow by, it is natural to accrue laments. One lament I have banked is the pause in my writing. After pursuing more pedestrian but important pursuits, I lost sight of my need for creative outputs. But family and career filled many of those spaces in the left behind. Is time to refill the empty bucket and not lament that this book became another lament in the left behind.

My science and engineering are only one fraction of who I am but I’m as passionate about that as my art. Much of what you will read here is like a time capsule of my artistic and scientific viewpoint of the world. The earliest published work in this volume dates from 1979 when I was 17. The majority of these early works date from the period 1977 - 1984.

My life and survival from 3 medically induced near deaths has helped consolidate my view of life. I am certain the stress of my tribe has contributed to this. The latest research into epigenetic memory does seem to indicate a causative effect -- done largely with Holocaust survivors. The tragedy of and multiple calamities of our tribe are a repeated story of survival against the odds. Not unlike my own survival from my medical circumstances. I think this combined with my near fatal stroke a few years ago has unlocked this mystery for me.

I am plagued with useless correlations and causation models. I once I learn how something works it will forever be there for me to recall. Just like my shared need of survival. It is not a that tribes that survives calamity. It is individuals. We now know that information from the left behind is in my very protocol of my biology.