At the age of fifty-five and in the grasp of the realization of more years behind than in front of me, I felt a need to stop and look at not just where I was but where I had been, where I came from. For too long, I felt stuck in the past. Shadows and Echoes evolved as an opportunity to re-live past experiences and re-capture the people who influenced me the most. It was time to gain new insights; for finding answers to the over-arching question: "Why I am what I am." Looking at one's life when in his mid-fifties I believe, is not unusual, though for most, the past is probably only a segment of one's life, an interval with fairly well-defined parameters. This was not the case with me, until I began to write. Encapsulating aspects of my life and personal influences, Shadows and Echoes originated as a strict narrative, a composite journaling if you will, for the benefit of my daughters. A change in the setting-fictionalized between psychiatrist and patient- added interaction and subtle nuances associated with the psychotherapeutic arena. That change gives the reader a focused relatable appeal. Personally, I found this freeing and to a great extent, stabilizing. Readers, I believe, will share similar ends, whether their "look-back" is joyful, sad, and/or wistful, or some combination. With religion as the fulcrum, earlier foundations and broader issues are stressed, i.e. childhood and family dynamics and the post-World War II confluence of identity, assimilation, and anti-Semitism. In my late adolescence, for a variety of reasons our family left that safe, monolithic, supportive "cocoon" I had known and loved. It was this breach that seemed to change everything: my academic dismissal from college that propelled me into a premature marriage; career identity diffusion; a second failed marriage, and a series of relationships. Given his centrality in my life, much content was devoted to my father. He was my best friend and me