13How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. -George Washington Carver
Dedicated to everyone who never existed. For all those who did: Congratulations.
Also, thank you to Mrs. Addington, my seventh grade English teacher, because she kindly asked for a dedication, and also because she taught me a thing or two.
Foreword. I am not a psychological specialist. I have a hobby in the study of psychology, but no real expertise in the field. I have never been to an insane asylum. I do not claim to know anything about the inner workings of the human mind.
I am also not a literary expert. I am a hack writer and an aspiring author. I do not claim to know what it is like to be a professional novelist.
I have been to a bagel deli. My first was a quaint little place in Carmel, Indiana. I know a thing or two about bagels.
This story is the autobiography of David Verity. David is a patient at Elysian Fields State Mental Hospital. David is not real. Elysian Fields State Mental Hospital is not real, and Elysian Fields, California is not real, either. Almost nothing in this story is real. I created all of it.
Sorry.
Any references to real people, places and things used in this story are done without permission.
Sorry.
Definitions used in this story are taken from .
George Washington Carter's quote, used above and without permission, was taken from .
Websites are useful things.
On another note: George Washington Carver invented peanut butter, which is an anti-depressant that can be spread on toast. I am forever in his debt.
-Joseph Delbert Dewiel.