As I think about it, I recognize that I have always had a different view of the subject of age from that held by most of my contemporaries.  They have tended to think of "old age" (the most relative of terms) as a distinct liability.  In a society where almost everything seems disposable, that view is perhaps understandable.  However, I have seen old age as an asset...as something which gives us a perspective we couldn't have in youth.
    It is that perspective which has led to what is perhaps the most unique aspect of From This Mountaintop.  Most of the stories contained in this volume are the result of ideas solicited directly from seniors.  I have repeatedly asked the question of them: "what ideas or values would you like to see passed along from you to your children and grandchildren in literary form?"  The enthusiastic outpouring of ideas from seniors has provided the foundation for this effort.
    The themes such as keeping one's own counsel, reverence for the land and wilderness, the virtue of experience, the importance of lifelong learning, continued usefulness, etc., which are central to the fictional stories enclosed, are contributed by seniors themselves and represent their spiritual legacy to succeeding generations.  Their contributions range from the elderly gentleman who stopped to talk about "Deadman's Swamp" as I was taking a respite from fly fishing the Manistee in Northern Michigan, to the Florida retiree who provided me with the inspiration for "THE Issue."  In a larger sense, it is the seniors who deserve any and all credit for this small "gift across time."  Its shortcomings are clearly my own.
    As I have talked with others and reviewed my own life, I recognize that we have paid a price to climb to this spot on the mountaintop.  Yet from here we can see many things more clearly than we could years ago.  Our age, far from limiting us, opens vistas to the human soul unimagined in our youth, or by today's youth!
    Our later years, far from occasioning despair, can be, as they should be, the richest, most insightful years of all.  If From This Mountaintop contributes in the slightest to the enrichment of the grateful years, I will feel deeply privileged for having had the opportunity to repay a portion of my debt to all those who have enriched my life.
 

DOH