Navigating the Maze

Foreword

Norman R. Augustine, Potomac, MD, United States

My mother, who was born in Colorado and lived to the age of 105, was 10 years old when the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, a flight that could have taken place inside the Space Shuttle’s fuel tank were it placed on its side. In her lifetime, she met friends of mine who had walked on the moon. She was 3 years old when Henry Ford built his first automobile. Life expectancy at birth in America was then 47 years, and telephone service had just opened between New York and Chicago. There were no X-ray machines because Röntgen had not yet discovered X-rays, and it would be 2 more years before the first radio signal was sent. More than 20 million horses provided much of America’s transportation ...