When I was growing up, I never felt I was an individual.  I was
part of a vast network of family, school friends, etc., etc.  I
was subject to their likes and dislikes through a kind of social
osmosis.  It took a gradual process of education to learn how to
view the world through my own eyes.  The process will continue as
long as I live.  Even then, I will never know whether it is Richard
Lem, or the spirit of something I read, heard, or saw that is
reacting to a situation.  This confusion is caused by operating at
the first level of consciousness, the level in which I react to
someone else's reaction and they in return react to my reaction.
It's like riding on the tiger's back.  You go in circles and can't
get off.
	- Richard D. Lem, *A Mile's Journey*