Beyond Collapse - Paperback

I am an odd questioner. I admit it. However, this is largely due to an intensive education by both parents from a very early age and an exposure to a stupendous variety of cultures and environments - both low and high. Oh and then there was that rigorous parochial school system with a particular instructor who (blessedly) required that I inquire, question, deconstruct and demand answers. Then he had the audacity to teach me how to seek them out myself if the initial answers didn't satisfy me. Blended in is a crazy-quilt of vocations ranging from ironworker to professor to an engineer on a quiet (and rather overly-guarded) US Air Force test range - just to pick from a few. The product is a man with a mind that is inquisitive, a childlike sense of wonder, but a hard skeptic's eye. I am the progeny of a strong-minded psychologist with a sense of logic and order and an engineer who is given to dreams and wanderlust. I have, as a result, wound up finding a home and a spouse located far, far from my place of birth. My hometown? I'll let you know when I find it, but my current location is looking really good. I am a semi-devout Catholic man (courtesy of my dear wife, who pulled me out of 'lapsed' status quite a few years ago) I have learned the hard way to find value and love in ordinary people, no matter who they are, or what they know, have, or worship (or, well, sometimes don't). That said, I am also the penultimate skeptic whenever circumstances require it. Long story short? I'm just a regular guy who has lived a highly irregular life. I fully expect it to get even more irregular as time goes by as well - but then, a regular, ordinary life would be rather boring, now wouldn't it?