No matter how far or close you think you are to retirement, this book is your one-stop guide to help you plot your direction for the coming decades. Not long ago everyone knew what the word retirement meant--retire at age 65 after 40 years at the same job and coast through your golden years courtesy of a comfortable nest egg. But now, age expectancy is higher, savings are slimmer, and people change jobs more frequently. Clinging to this outdated concept of retirement only gets you a room in your kids’ house. Your retirement is going to require an incremental approach to planning--and you must begin now. This requires conscious engagement, diverse interests, and the ability to adapt. In How Do I Get There from Here?, readers will first be directed how to review all their assets--both tangible and intangible--so they can get an honest assessment of where they are right now. Then a journey through self-reflective questions and exercises will: walk you through imagining your future, identifying skills you’ll need, and learning how to prepare for inevitable twists and turns along the way. Stop clinging to an ancient and stereotypical idea of retirement. Decades of nonstop leisure is not only unreachable for most, it’s not even truly desirable. Begin now charting the path for a unique, dynamic future you can look forward to!

The cover drawing, a depiction of a pomegranate tree that grows on the premises of the Garden Tomb in the old city of Jerusalem, was created by the author. According to J. E. Cirlot’s A Dictionary of Symbols, pomegranates, by nature of their shape and internal structure, symbolize the reconciliation of the multiple and diverse within apparent unity, and in the Bible appear as a symbol of the Oneness of the universe. Pomegranates were also embroidered on the hems of the Jewish priestly vestments prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. And in the Hebrew scriptures, pomegranates were figured as tokens of fruitfulness even to the extent of being the Tree of Life itself and symbolic of the restoration of God’s favor.

I'd always wanted to travel, except that I didn't know it. After graduating from college, getting a job, and setting out on my own, I made some sporadic attempts to see some of the world. It took a while to figure out how and it was only after I got married that the two of us came upon a strategy that worked for us. This book is a collection of stories about my mostly modest opportunities to travel. This is not a how-to book. There will be no listings of the best places to go. You will not find even a slightly comprehensive guide to locations, National Parks, interesting cities, countries, or anything else particularly useful. However, I hope you will find some interesting and amusing stories about surprises that we encountered along the way.

Rather than reading small-town representations in Canadian literature as portraits of a parochial past or a lost golden age, this book claims that they are best understood as sophisticated statements on the effects of modernity in an ever-more cosmopolitan world. In Ontario, as urbanization increased over the past century, small towns became a popular literary trope, and Ryan Porter argues that literary small towns are reflections, and even sublimated explorations, of contemporary life. Referencing the theories of heritage scholars, who view popularly understood pasts as constructions shaped by changing sensibilities, You Can't Get There from Here argues that the literary small-town Ontario past is malleable, consisting of attempts to come to terms with the present in which the narrators find themselves. The book focuses on four key Ontario authors - Stephen Leacock, Robertson Davies, Alice Munro, and Jane Urquhart - as well as many secondary authors, and links the readings to much broader trends in actual Ontario towns and in popular culture.

THEN AND NOW In 1971, as an undergraduate student at Loyola University of Chicago, I often sat on the steps of the Chicago Water Tower during class breaks. I watched the traffic flowing north and south along Michigan Avenue's bustling Magnificent Mile. As a kid who hailed from the housing projects on the west side of Chicago, I marveled at the late model cars, beautifully tailored pedestrians and the expensive boutiques that lined the street. I often wondered, "How do you get there from here?" In 1994, I arrived in Bentonville, Arkansas to assume my new post as the Senior Vice-President of the People Division for Wal-Mart Stores (Sam Walton's term for human resources). Soon to become the world's largest retailer and private employer, a Fortune #1 company and among the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For. I had experienced an exciting and satisfying journey. Today, residing on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina I enjoy my role as consultant and corporate board member for several public companies. Over the years, I have shared my thoughts on "getting there from here" in many places around the world. Why not finally put them in a book? Good question. This book is my answer. Enjoy.

When a journalist sets out on a round-the-globe adventure, she hopes to meet those that live outside mainstream society, only to find that even on the fringes, the unstoppable forces of globalization encroach on daily life. 30,000 first printing.