The reaction of readers to The Constant Choice, since it came out, has been an especially gratifying experience. Some of those who have reviewed it on Amazon, or send me personal emails, are acquaintances, and others are strangers. What’s encouraging to me is that they are seeing their own perceptions of truth confirmed by the book’s content—reassured that I’ve invested time and energy into writing not just about my personal life in order to help advance the perennial values of honesty, integrity, compassion, and goodness. It isn’t hard to talk about oneself. Most of us love to do it. So I don’t pride myself on an effort to publish my life story: it’s been done many times. Yet I love to see that as much as people find my dramatic accounts of my childhood and career of interest, they’re often even more responsive to my insistence that, as a race, we’re at a crossroads where we can and must choose what’s good, one individual at a time. It’s a classic admonition, but thankfully most people haven’t grown weary of hearing it. Here’s a simple but wonderful example of a reader response from a past acquaintance:

Peter,

I may have been the first order Amazon received for your book, and I can say reading it has had a profound effect.
Of course, I enjoyed reading of some stories and people with which and whom I have familiarity.
I enjoyed hearing your personal stories and experiences.  For it is our experiences which shape our beliefs, and it is our beliefs which shape our actions.
But most of all, I took comfort in the enduring principles themselves, in particular the idea of personal and professional alignment of values.  I believe this to be true, and I have tried my whole career to remain true to that ideal.  The good guys (or guys who do good) may not win the short race, but I am absolutely convinced that the long race goes to those who have, and model, strong values.

Carl Hartman