Truth is elusive. Our instinctive theories usually miss the target. They are too filled with bias, limited experience, emotional reaction---our explanations are too full of ourselves. Nature is so constructed that truth will not yield her secrets to the casual inquirer.

As a child I loved to take things apart. A wind-up clock. A wall heater in a hotel. An old radio with tubes. My curiosity far exceeded my skill at restoring order and functioning.

I still enjoy taking things apart. While teaching math and science and raising a young family, I hungered to understand parenting. What helps children become good adults? What is a good adult? Why do our foster children have such a hard time making healthy choices?

So I went back to school and got a PhD in Family and Human Development. I was fascinated by “attributional bias,” the fact that we always paint the world with what we are. My dissertation project developed and attribution-based parenting program and tested it in an experimental design.

At Auburn University I joined colleagues to try to understand teenagers, their lives, feelings, families, and choices. I taught principles of parenting to groups all over Alabama.

Two years working with Steve Covey taught me that I wanted to be an abundance thinker. If I have something useful, I want to share it.

Teaching for Utah State University on a variety of family topics renewed my appreciation for the great richness of knowledge.

Now Nancy and I live in Arkansas. Our children are adults whom we admire and enjoy. We have amazing grandchildren. After more than three decades of companionship with my dear Nancy, I am more interested than ever in understanding how relationships become strong, balanced and healthy. How do we bring two vastly different histories into a harmonious whole? Wonderful new discoveries have been made in this area.

My greatest resources in the hunt for truth were cultivated by my dear mother and father. They taught by word and deed a love of learning as well as faith in Meaning and Purpose. In fact, I believe that God is the source of all Truth. He hints at cosmic Truth in scripture. He provides daily experience to keep us grounded. And we use the wealth of research to help us ask better questions of Life.

It is an amazing, challenging, refreshing process. I am delighted to have the opportunity I have had to learn and to share. I continue to seek Truth. And I share my small discoveries with you in the hope that they may be useful in your personal search for strong, meaningful, and loving relationships.