"Tell me about a joy in your life that came unexpectedly, a moment that you did not even know you were waiting for, that caught you off guard and made you smile. As I left the university one afternoon, excited by the ideas I had been writing and reading about, a thought flashed through me: 'This is what I was made for.' I stopped in the street, stunned by the joy of it. People passing paused to look at me standing there alone, grinning from ear to ear.

"To find those places, inside ourselves and in the world, where we belong, to find that for which we were made and to recognize it — this is joy. I was made to dance around the dining-room table in the arms of a man who loves me, letting the food get cold. I belong to the stars in the night sky and on the mirrored surface of the lake — to the silence of the wilderness in darkness. I was made to ride the dragon. I belong to the ideas I love. I was made to study and learn and teach and write. I belong to all of this and much more — this is my joy. And it is limitless."