This work springs from its author's need to seek out the meaning of life for himself and to ground his identity in something both more generous than religious dogmas and more substantial than the shifting conventions of society. It is a combined autobiography and spiritual inquiry - and a plea to readers to resist the call of organized religion and confront the basic questions of life as individuals. At its core is a series of letters to a Jehovah's Witness who invited the author to share views on religion.