It is with joy that I record the happiness, progress, and fulfillment which have come into my experience since I began the study of Christian Science in 1952.
At that time I had resigned from one profession, had achieved only mediocre success in a second, and, through lack of capital, was failing in a third. I was lonely, subject to abdominal difficulties, to migraine, which would sometimes last for days, and to colds and influenza. A sense of frustration and hopelessness, interspersed with bouts of bad temper, afflicted me (and, through me, others). I seemed to be the victim of impersonal injustice.
Family responsibilities prevented me, I thought, from moving to an area where I could use my talents; and to remain where I was would burden me with duties, not of my own choosing, which I had neither the strength, nor the knowledge, nor the money to carry out. I used alcohol sparingly and tobacco unsparingly. I was at times desperately self-conscious and had other problems for which there appeared to be no human solution. The future seemed dreary and futile.