BOOK SUMMARY: Upstate New York farmer and philosopher Jim Atwell
has been living the dream life in Fly Creek since his retirement in
1993. His award-winning weekly newspaper columns about rural life
and his past as a teaching monk, professor, and college
administrator led to his successful first book, "From Fly Creek:
Celebrating Life in Leatherstocking Country" (North Country Books,
2005). But his life took a dramatic turn in 2007 when he was forced
to deal with a neurological disease diagnosed first as Parkinson's,
then as Parkinson's Plus, and most recently as Parkinson's:
unknown. He has been told by his doctor that a positive diagnosis
of this odd family of diseases is best done by autopsy -- a
strategy that Jim stoutly rejects. This second collection of
columns, "Wobbling Home," is a deeply insightful meditation on his
illness, his Christian faith, and his journey's end. Raised a Roman
Catholic, Jim has been a Quaker for forty years. Viewing his life
as a "Parkie" through the lens of Quakerism, he sees the disease as
emanating from the same loving Source that gives him life -- a
Source which also manipulates his body and brain at random times
and in mysterious ways. He shares not only his own thoughts and
reactions, but also those of his loving wife Anne and other Parkies
and their spouses as well. Interspersed with tales of daily life
and ritual in one of New York's most bucolic small towns, Jim's
writings are shot through with the warm humor that is a mark of his
personality and his masterful style. AUTHOR BIO: A Maryland native,
Jim Atwell spent thirteen years as a Catholic teaching monk in the
Christian Brothers religious order. In 1969, he returned to life as
a layman and took a faculty position at Anne Arundel Community
College near his hometown of Annapolis. In his twenty-three years
at the College, he served as assistant, associate, and full
professor, and as chairman, dean, and Vice President for Academic
Affairs. In retirement, he is an emeritus member of the Anne
Arundel faculty. His personal spiritual development now marks him
as being a practicing Quaker for forty years. Jim owes his deep
love of Upstate New York to his late first wife Gwen, who grew up
near Cooperstown. After her death in 1989, he moved north to start
life again in the 18th-century farmhouse they had bought for a
retirement home. In 1997 Jim remarried; he and Anne Geddes-Atwell
still make their home in Fly Creek, raising sheep and chickens, and
pursuing writing and graphic design, respectively.
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