For Love of My Life

With her first solo Christmas trip to Paris, Sherrie Ford-at the time, head of one of the ten largest woman-owned businesses in the United States and prominent consultant in the field of work-culture change and lean manufacturing, mother of three, grandmother of four, sister, friend-surprised family and friends and, actually, finally, herself. Going away at Christmas? So far away? Alone? Yes, she left her deeply embedded, high-octane routine and life full of responsibilities to a company, a career, employees, family, and friends for no real objective other than to see what unfolded. At home in Athens, Georgia, her life was busy, her schedule full. She was early to bed and very early to rise and busy all day and into the evening, whether in the plant or traveling to speak and consult all over the U. S. and in South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada. When home on weekends, she spent time with family and friends and went to the office. On the two solo trips to Paris recorded here, she steps right through the looking glass and enters another way of being: sleeping as long as she wants whenever she wants, exploring Paris on foot, indulging in bubble baths twice a day, and reading, reading, reading. She steps into the past-her own through memory and dreams and the past we call history through her reading and thinking and touring. Napoleon and Josephine, Marie Antoinette, Jacques Derrida, and others are part of her reverie and her searching, and they become part of ours as we accompany her when she tears herself from her room and her reading and sallies forth to find sustenance and adventure on this intelligent, emotional journey.