Books by Gary Luhmann

Face hard times, again. Face the fallen hope inherent in a mid-life crisis. Face the near death calamity. Not with one's youth in full flower, but with half a life depleted and the other half in doubt. The middle of life one awakens on a bridge over rushing waters more downriver than not. The true way is lost. Do you wish to be recalled to life? How does one face this summons? How does one renew a life worth living with half a life left?It's nuclear winter this time 1990 in the pulp and paper industry. Look over the Hudson Falls with its raging waters over the turbines and wish for the governor's task force and Kurt Kallini's private investment in Peter Pryne's mill. Two women work out a deal with the Economic Council. Darlene Laird proposes a task force to reinvent industry in Albany's Capital Region, and Tessie Freer pledges further restructuring and economy in the Pryne Mill she runs. At the table sit Union rep Tom Mahoney opposite from mill security officer and sheriff of Hudson Falls, Seamus Rose. They have interests as do management, ownership, and Governor Livingston's task force on the Economic Council. They decide to recall to life Pryne Paper the best they can in hard times, rather than sell off its forested lands, its electricity output, and its mill machinery.For the group of reunion friends meeting back in Hudson Park they too are on the move upriver toward Albany and its greater opportunity. David Morpheys and Laurel Grove meet over summer vacation. Leslie leaves Hudson Park end of this year to work with Darlene Laird's task force in Albany. Joey Gallo leaves his Gin Joint along Poughkeepsie's river when it burns down during a class reunion. Flash Gordon leaves Clearwater Supply of Georgia to help Darlene with Charley Brown in the Arbor Hills slums of Albany. They all move to the Albany Region come their mid-life crisis.David returns to see CC in the Corning Tower and resume their relations in Albany. Leslie moved there to take over Teacher Pensions. CC works the newspaper with her journalism. And Darlene's task force brings life to Tessie's mill, to the Arbor Hills ghetto which Charles Brown runs, prepares city and suburbs to combine in the county, and makes the entire Capital Region part of a growth economy.Kurt Kallini, who funded Captain Jack's run for governor, now plans to bring together the raw material industries into an AMPer's Co-op. Commoditize the raw material industries and turn the local operation like Pryne Paper into a global enterprise. But AMron of Texas grows big fast and comes for the Pryne Paper Mill too. Morpheys the Albany girls ask to check out how the sale AMron will go and he gets inside the mill to help Sal Pryne survive the takeover. All have their mid-life crisis together. What more are friends for?

The Tao is the way to do things right. The Tao is the way to live a life worth living, while the DOW is mere measurement of success. The DOW leads to wealth and afterward to wielding that wealth for the benefit of community which benefited oneself. Then there is also a Tao to Power. Be at no man's beck and call, be no man's puppet on a string, be master of one's fate and not forced to serve the powerful. There is as well the Tao of Nature because as human beings, we are part and parcel of the cycling seasons, one of a million species, however endowed with brains and intuitive powers to live a life worth living. There is the earth we all share, the family of one and all, and the social and natural community to which we belong. The Tao is the way.

David Morpheys and Lorraine Shanessey leave home for colleges north and south, one a grind college where David hopes to find glory in football, the other a warm weather school in Florida where Lorraine hopes to find the glamorous life of sorority parties. They find a missing person apart from one other. They miss their idyllic ten years growing up together in Hudson Park. They discover that distance is destiny. Over a month of holidays back home they face first a pregnancy and then a miscarriage of their shared fortunes. They leave home confirmed with their separation. The summer they convalesce together, tell of his March on Washington and her women''s group witnessing the murder of nursing friends by state authorities. They tell their separate lives to make easier a second year to be apart. Over the seven years, 1969-1976, they share stories and stay apart. David travels the voyage of discovery west and the journey east. Lorraine suffers an abusive relationship, faces a frat board, and works in DC during the Watergate time. When David and Lorraine are far apart as a California grad school and a Florida law school, Lorraine calls for David to come rescue her. A final time they return home for good.