The current book – What is it about? 

When someone is young, they often see the world through "rose-colored glasses" and everything seems possible.  When they reach middle age, many experience "a midlife crisis" and the dreams of their youth are often abandoned.  When they reach their "golden years", the wisdom that has been gained through many years of experience gives them a totally different perspective on life.  If Roberto had attempted to write this book in either of the first two stages, it would have been very different.  Perhaps, that is why fate saved it until he was wise enough to explore and contemplate the significant events that took place throughout his life. 

The book chronicles one man's journey through life and focuses on the seven topics that emerged as the concepts that truly mattered throughout his life.  Five of them are pertinent to everyone, but all of them played a crucial role in Roberto’s life and fortunes.  The book is autobiographical in nature (not out of a sense of narcissism), but because that was the only way to
relate his story. 

Roberto truly believes in the saying that “Truth is stranger than fiction”, so telling his life story was the best vehicle for sharing what he has learned from his many travails.  If the reader can relate to one or more of the vignettes in the sections, then the author will have accomplished his goal for the first part of the book – When life was unfair ...  The reader will decide what is unfair, and whether some event in their own life resonates as they read the vignettes. 

Roberto shares the often unconscious ways that he handled the major challenges throughout his life – How one man survived …  He does not see his actions as being extraordinary, but as being rather pragmatic.  Many times what he did was serendipitous rather than planned, but it allowed him to survive and to keep moving forward.  He hopes that the reader will learn from his experiences that took place after his major life challenges. 

The moral of the book is contained in the final portion of it – And learned how to cope.  Roberto was not an “expert” on coping while he was living through the aftermath of the setbacks in his life, but he eventually did learn how to cope.  Hopefully, the reader will learn from his successes and his failures.  Roberto will have accomplished his goal if the reader can benefit from his story, rather than having to learn everything the “hard way” as he did! 

When life was unfair …  - Its Table of Contents

The heart of the book is composed of 49 vignettes.  Each vignette is an incident or a series of related incidents that are woven into a short story.  Every one of them is true, unfortunately.  The details of each incident were not difficult to recall because they had been seared into Roberto’s memory throughout his life. 

The reader will relate to those vignettes that resonate with incidents in their own life and experience.  Other vignettes will serve to expose the reader to various aspects of our society that they may have never encountered.  Hopefully, some of the other vignettes will enhance the reader’s ability to empathize when they hear of traumatic events in the lives of others. 

When you have your health	5 vignettes
Your family really does matter	7 vignettes
Race – This country’s “Achilles Heel”	7 vignettes
A lifelong search for love	9 vignettes
Career choices that alter your life	9 vignettes
Vision loss is a big fear	6 vignettes
The true value of friendship	6 vignettes

 

A note to the reader – About the Table of Contents

Roberto initially wrote his book to be published the traditional way (on paper). The requirements to publish an ebook (mostly word processing functions) became quite tedious and difficult for him to do on his computer monitor because he is legally blind. After completing what he could on his own, he hired a consultant (an ebook author) to prepare his manuscript for uploading as an ebook. It was uploaded and published on Smashwords in October 2013.

In January 2014, Roberto downloaded a copy of his ebook in order to proof the final version that was available for sale. He wanted to make sure that no errors were introduced during the ebook uploading process. His iPad has a voice function that reads books to him (technology is invaluable to the visually impaired). This proofreading process would appear quite comical to an outside observer. Roberto had to balance a three inch binder on his lap so that he could read the printed book as the iPad (in his left hand) read his ebook to him.

Unfortunately, Roberto discovered unauthorized changes to the Table of Contents. The detailed tables (that were designed to guide the reader through each section of the book) were all relocated to the front of the ebook. For some reason, the line spacing (white space) was removed which made the tables less attractive and possibly even a little confusing. In addition, chapters and concomitant numbers were added by the consultant. Roberto’s autobiography did not have “chapters” because the seven topics that form the heart of the book will continue to evolve until he dies. A chapter usually has a beginning and an end, so he never considered this label while writing his book.

Perhaps, these changes were made by the consultant in order to accommodate the “linked table of contents” function which is one of the capabilities of an ebook. Roberto is not an expert on current ebook technology, so that is why he hired the consultant to help him publish his ebook. Fortunately, it appears that nothing else was changed after he finished the initial proofreading. Rather than republish his ebook in order to change the Table of Contents and the Chapters, Roberto decided to ask the reader to just ignore them and to continue reading his book.