01. Preface

One of my favorite Charles Schulz cartoons involves the little boy Linus, who’s always sucking his thumb and carrying around his security blanket dragging on the floor, in the first frame demanding that Charlie Brown read him a bedtime story, which Charlie Brown does not want to do notwithstanding Linus’ insistence.
“Read me!” “Read me!” “Read me,” demands the bedtime resistant Linus, whose persistent and annoying cries finally breaks down the resolve of Charlie Brown, who grabs any old book off a shelf, opens the cover, and begins to read.
“A man was born. Then he dies. The end!!” Charlie says, slamming the book emphatically closed.
“He sounds very interesting,” says Linus. “I wish I’d met him.”
And so we begin.