Larry Brilliant, author and physician (image from paloaltojcc.org)

Just when it seemed all of humanity was about to be incinerated in a third world conflict of unprecedented ferocity or frozen in a nuclear winter spawned by two missile launching mega-powers playing Cold War games of super-chicken, a miracle of healing and disease prevention occurred, and small-pox was eradicated. If that can happen and the decades long standoff between Russia plus its Soviet satellites and the United States of American could come to an end, at least for awhile, is there not reason for hope that we also, in our currently dire circumstances, might come to a favorable resolution before too late? Personal circumstances having rendered time especially short for preparing the current issue of this newsletter, I have not yet read the work of which I am here writing, but it is among the top contenders for my attention, high on my literary bucket list, for I am keenly interested in the work of an author, Larry Brilliant, who is at once a mystic, activist, world traveler, adventurer, superb storyteller, and a physician who helped save the planet from a disease that killed an estimated half-billion people merely in the 20th Century. If this brief allusion has piqued your interest as well, by all means check out Sometimes Brilliant, available in local and online libraries or for gift purchases (perhaps even as a present to oneself) in book, audio CD, and e-book formats. If you do get hold of a copy, please let me know what you think. So far, readers are giving it excellent ratings. I hope in the next few weeks to find out why.