Art of Balancing (Paperback or Softback)

Riding a bicycle on a country byway and writing in the quiet chambers of the writer and athlete's own personal solitude represent forms of meditation. Balancing his life from a fulcrum that pivots from a personal to a societal vantage point requires him to navigate many roads with numerous twists and turns. On this journey sometimes the unseen gravel under his wheel causes him to slip and glide unexpectedly crashing into unconsciousness. Upon waking up, he chooses to question his existence in the wake of the influence of some elements of philosophy, history, art, politics and other cultural topics that shape his opinions and raison d'être as a citizen of the global community.

Stream of consciousness serves to blend the spiritual, intellectual and physical needs of the diligent wordsmith to examine metaphysical quandaries, much like Don Quixote, that cause him to fall off of Rocinante in order to rise up and equipoise himself again and again. It is in this space of equilibrium where he decides to find meaning and peace within himself and to dialogue with his fellow readers who are interested in untangling the perplexities of living. Instead of avoiding these difficult and confounding philosophical "thorns," as many do, he forges forward with his pen/lance to unravel the mysteries that naturally want to blossom from the seed of unexplored truths. By doing this, he has made a conscious decision to live purposefully, as Goethe would suggest, in a world where he is mindful of himself and others.

Lane Carnes is the author of two books of bilingual poetry: The La Vida Existencial and Internas Voces and Ensimismamiento, a novella. He grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was inspired to write by his father, Nat Carnes, who worked as a journalist in Puerto Rico and is the author of several political-historical Latin American novels: Chile-New York: The Eleventh of September, San Juan, Trujillo: The Chief, and others.