{"product_id":"walking-confidently-forward-growing-up-amish-mennonite-going-to-harvard-and-life-beyond","title":"Walking Confidently Forward: Growing up Amish Mennonite, Going to Harvard, and Life Beyond","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e \u003cspan\u003eA brief biography following the early life of Paul Wagler, from his roots in the Amish Mennonite farming community, shortly after WWII, through many near-death experiences, including almost drowning, being run over by a car, polio, threats of fratricide, burning bedrooms, operations and more. The reader is then invited to accompany Paul to the halls of Harvard in Boston, where he strikes out into the secular world away from the rural Amish life and all he's ever known to begin his undergraduate degree. Facing off against future presidential candidate Al Gore in a neck-in-neck race for student body president, lunching with Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara (and not pulling punches about the ongoing war in Vietnam), studying under National Security Advisor\/Secretay of State Henry Kissinger, meditation with baba Ram Das, and other adventure, including dorm-room muggings at gunpoint, pinball-related back injuries, and young-love. From Boston, the reader is taken with Paul to New York, as he wades into the world of banking, then some international travel to Europe with a wedding in the mix, moving up the ladder in a German bank before moving back to mafia-run Brooklyn in the early 70's. Sexy Spanish teachers, adultery, hosting Russian ambassadors, clandestine pictures, international trade, West Coast travel, chairing World Trade Committees, Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers, bidding wars between banks. All of this leads the reader with Paul to Vancouver, where he would eventually not only become one of the highest-paid executives in the city, laying the groundwork in these early days for a career in banking and corporate management, but where he would also meet Kathleen Jamison.\u003cbr\u003eThis biography is a blended narrative telling, woven between the voices of Kathleen Jamison, now Kathy Wagler, and Paul himself. It is also interspersed with chronological photos, and includes anecdotal memories from an assortment of Paul’s family and friends. The narrative arc brings the reader from Paul’s birth in Ohio 1946 to his and Kathy’s wedding 1978, but includes many insightful asides on life, culture, community, economics, business, politics, religion and the baby boomer experience as a whole.\u003cbr\u003eCommenting on the contents and purpose of this book, Paul says:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I was born into a family with a culture that had not changed much over many generations. In fact my Amish Mennonite ancestors lived lives quite similar to my grandparents. So I view myself as part of a transitional generation that has undergone huge changes, as it has for people all around the world. The changes in the past 100 years were almost as great as in the preceding 400 years.\u003cbr\u003eWhile you may not identify with the specifics of my personal story, the generational pattern is much the same in many countries. We have moved from many small local cultures towards a more common global culture.\u003cbr\u003eSo while we still have individual stories to tell, we share so many patterns in common with other people around the world that we now better understand each other.’’\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books Prime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45914268369087,"sku":"a260ab61-2a89-4c74-a0a3-c5a65c1666c8","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0761\/7550\/7647\/files\/6f2ce840376aaee11d55342d031633a8.jpg?v=1785056389","url":"https:\/\/books-prime.com\/products\/walking-confidently-forward-growing-up-amish-mennonite-going-to-harvard-and-life-beyond","provider":"Books Prime","version":"1.0","type":"link"}