Dr. Gordon Livingston has been a physician since 1967. He is also a psychiatrist and writer who contributes to the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, and Reader's Digest. Livingston is the author of the international bestseller Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart.

In And Never Stop Dancing he gives us thirty spunky essays about the roadblocks and surprises of life. In "Forgiveness Is a Gift We Give Ourselves," he notes that the United States is not a forgiving nation. Many people believe in exacting retribution from offenders; the idea of getting even lies behind the wide support for the death penalty and the mania for suing. Livingston suggests that forgiveness is an act of letting go; we can free ourselves from imprisonment in the past by making forgiveness a gift to ourselves.

Closely allied to the country's penchant for revenge is unremitting conflict, which is the daily fare in this democracy. In "It's Easier to Be Angry Than Sad," the author explores the sadness of failed expectations inherent in so many power struggles and hostility. Livingston often asks his patients, "What are you saving yourself for?"

In "It Is Better to Be Spent Than Saved," he examines passivity and the refusal to risk change. To counter these tendencies he advocates acting with determination and courage. The same qualities are needed to combat fear. In "We Are Defined by What We Fear," Livingston declares that a sensitive index of our fear is sales of handguns. "When we feel threatened, we buy guns. It's what makes us Americans."

Other topics covered in these essays include the aging process, asking the right questions, attachment as a source of suffering, the search for meaning, the yearning for companionship, heroism, drowning in information, tolerating uncertainty, beauty, and death.