For my wife, Trudy, and my children, Hays and Tess.

Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so...was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon."

Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon, they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.