Perhaps I can begin to outline the story:

A. There is the non-graduation Graduation;

B. Then the horrific accident and recovery;

C. Then a section on “All the Other Stories” which should be brief vignettes, not necessarily chronological, of things like AIDS work, including lobbying, quilt; “favorite things;” surviving Philly, its downers; travel tales; the talented Kraft, and others;

D. The Lawsuit-Penn sues me to collect a bill I did not owe. The best and the worst of it. Winning the lawsuit without a lawyer.

E. Finishing up, tuition-free.

Each section has its own message. Is there overall triumph? Yes, in achieving the “worthy goal” I set on an application a year and a half after the accident.

Is there piety? Despite my religious studies degree, there’s little piety. About other times in my life I can say “God must have been there;” not this. Dr. Kristen Ries did say “I’m awfully glad you hit your head where you did, and not somewhere else.” There were people praying for my recovery in Salt Lake City who were Jewish, Catholic, Mormon, and Protestant, and gay and straight. That’s fairly diverse; it could have been even more diverse. I do believe in things unseen, like love; I do believe that believing makes things happen.

And I lost that bright and shining goal, the Ph.D., when the University sued me.