This Mobius Strip of Ifs

Mathias B.Freese is a former psychotherapist and teacher, and though he shares some of those experiences, this is no dry academic text. His essay collection is a rich concoction of stories, feelings, dreams, ideas, perceptions, and distilled memories. By sharing his own emotionally deprived childhood and family losses, he touches a core in all of us who've considered our early years and/or have gone through the pain of losing those we love. And he doesn't flinch when he shares his regrets or his inability to make those tender family connections that we all crave. In doing so, he shares his humanity.

But This Mobius Strip of Ifs is much more than a compilation of personal reflections. Through discussing the people who've had an impact on him—like Jefferson, Freud, Buster Keaton, Orson Welles, and the writers, Camus, Krishnamurti and Kazantzakis, he encourages us to look at our own lives. As he weaves in his encounters with these great men and others through film and books, he raises those big questions we all ask ourselves. What is our purpose? What is of value? What are we teaching our children in schools? What are we giving them at home? How do we get over our mistakes, our regrets in life? Can we? And can we ever know ourselves?

This Mobius Strip of Ifs is one book I plan to visit again and again.