Determined not to abandon the dreams and aspirations of youth, to be buried beneath decades of routine, predictability, and boredom, the author viewed life through the novel lens of each decade being represented by the single day of just one week. This unique perspective served as motivation to pursue dreams rather than letting life just "happen", was an antidote for deferring goals and aspirations until that illusive "someday", and a steadfast reminder of how quickly a week, and life, passes.
Seventy-Five Years in Seven Days chronicles the author's journey from the cattle and corn fields and of the family farm to an international school career that included eight fascinating countries on five continents. During more than forty years of living abroad, his journeys have taken him to many of the globe's iconic, remote, and distant destinations. His life story reads like a list of Hollywood movie genres including adventures, thrillers, dramas, tragedies, mysteries, crimes, and romances.
His adventures and experiences include sailing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, trekking in the Himalayas, sharing a Christmas pig feast with the Stone Age Dani Tribe in Papua, jungle hikes surrounded by lumbering prehistoric Komodo dragons, descending into Egyptian pyramids and the burial tombs of pharaohs, solo parachuting, landing on and being catapulted off aircraft carriers, learning how to use a poison dart blowpipe with Borneo's Iban Dayak headhunters, walking atop the Great Wall of China, and visiting the long neck Kayan women of Southeast Asia.
He has been on safaris to Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, experienced Chile's deadly 8.8 earthquake, spent a night in the Inca ruins atop Machu Picchu, was drenched by the mist of the Zambezi River plunging over Victoria Falls, had a private conversation with President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, traversed the Australian outback, trekked across glaciers in New Zealand and the Patagonian ice field of South America, and coped with the tragic deaths of four students on school campuses or while participating in school activities.
The author encourages the pursuit of dreams and aspirations to ensure a happy, fulfilling life, and believes one's life is best measured, not by counting birthdays, but by the number of stories created from life's experiences and adventures.
