Mark Johnson

It is highly unusual for a published research scientist and mathematician to have a revelatory moment in which one's bodily sense of existence is overcome by a non-localized spiritual sense of an enduring interconnectedness with one's world. It is equally unusual for a financially struggling farmer and a salaried music teacher to document in letters (with the exception of two brief visits) their entire courtship. Mark Johnson is that scientist and that farmer and teacher are his God-centered parents. For years Mark enjoyed living the new understandings flowing from his "Little Self" view of the world, but he could not find a satisfying way to share those understandings other than in serendipitous encounters. His search was interrupted when his parents' courtship letters surfaced. Ironically, in their exchanges, his parents, too, sought more meaningful ways to share their Christian understandings. In attempting to publish his parents' letters, Mark is finding a natural context for sharing his new view of our most basic and unifying spiritual truths.