To My Mother

Born in the 1930s, yet decades ahead of her time. From her earliest years she questioned authority, even the local priest, with a clarity and courage that revealed her free-thinking mind. She never told me what to think; she taught me how to think critically. To question and not be satisfied with the easy answers.

Her words were never sermons, but gentle truths that still guide me: that life is unpredictable, that the natural world holds its own order, that equality means nothing unless it is lived under the law for all people, and that freedom is never free unless it belongs to everyone. She knew freedom’s price was vigilance, and she carried that knowledge with grace.

Her love, sincerity, and compassion echo through every lyric in these pages. Whatever voice you hear within the pages of this book, it is hers. I owe all that I am to her.

Thank you, Mom. I love you.