CrossRoads

About the Book

When the son grows into an adult quite different from the father in life-design, you might expect some stress and, eventually, some yearning to find common ground.
      By the time Alex was approaching adulthood at 40 and Jonathan was approaching dotage at 67, they had had many father-son challenges. Although they always enjoyed their conversations, they had divergent mind-sets.
      Then Jonathan had a whimsical thought: Maybe this son is a primitive Celt, a throwback to pre-christian celticism, at odds with his father's christianized celticism. Maybe they could confirm this during a trip to Ireland, a week in the Dingle, a peninsula loaded with Celtic leftovers.
      In this father-son pilgrimage they enjoyed sights and insights, talking non-stop to a new CrossRoads of understanding and companionship, if not full agreement.
      Upon return, each wrote an essay on ten topics, here presented in pairs, such as "Speaking of Gaelic" and "Gaelic? No Thanks"..."On Guinness" and "One-My-Guinness, Two-My-Guinness"..."Talking Stones" and "Stonework, Soulwork."
      Each essay examines something about their trip, then develops something about their relationship. Thus Jonathan and Alex celebrate their wonderful journey - through both the Dingle and life - and their deepening friendship.
      The book reflects, then, on fatherhood and sonship - and the paradoxical harmony that two quite different tunes can make.

About the Author

Alex is a sailor, traveler, dog-lover, and writer with an insatiable appetite for learning, who has (he says) been wandering in the existential wilderness for forty years.

Jonathan is a teacher, minister, and writer with an insatiable appetite for learning, who has (he says) been working in suburbia for all his years.

They are donating the royalties from this book to the Children's Friendship Project for Northern Ireland, which pairs a Catholic teenager and a Protestant teenager (two boys or two girls) to stay with a family in the U.S. each summer - thus promoting paradoxical harmony.