The author writes: At twenty, life looked like a high adventure—intriguing and indecorous. At thirty,
it looked like a high endeavor—socially and economically important. By forty,
however, I grew highly dubious. Life seemed to have lost flavor on both counts. It
was then that I met [people from] the Oxford Group.
At this time, I think, I would have described myself as “white, married and a
Christian.” Actually I was somewhat tarnished and discolored, married in name
only, and very much of a pagan. A pagan is a man who spends his time chasing false
gods. And I had spent forty years of my time in chasing “Pleasure,” “Possessions,”
“Power,” “Position” and “Applause.
