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I cannot imagine my life today without the many gifts bestowed on me by Pau Estrada, Jaume Subirana and Josep Maria Solé Sabaté who, by handing me the keys to so many fascinating rooms and spaces within Catalan life, forever changed my way of looking at the world as well as my place within it.

I would be similarly adrift without my sister Christine, whose fearsomely well-organized intellect is only superseded in power by the ever-mindful love and care she bestows on those lucky enough to form part of her world.

And then there’s Kathy, who counts among her many, many loving gifts the rare ability to combine gracious, open-ended listening with timely, specific and ever-incisive questioning. During these last few years, no one has been more central to the process of turning notions into ideas, and ideas into essays, than she.

But at the root of my gratitude before life is the dialogue—which sometimes takes place in words but even more often, as luck would have it, in other much more powerful and ineffable codes—with my children Sophia, Lily and Luke. It is the need to honor their lives, both their miraculous present and promising future, that keeps the search for clarity and truth, and yes, laughter and joy, at the forefront of my vital concerns.