Growing up, I soon learned, or gave into, the frustrating fact of life that industry rules our lives in one way or another. One way or another, we give in, or learn the hard way, that lubrication is required for many forms of freedom that help us to just get by. And we must get by—or suffer the haunting human dilemma taught to us by Shakespeare in Hamlet.

And so the story of Bentari slowly grew from a childhood dream of African adventures; to the image of a becalmed tropical savanna that came to me as I awakened from surgery and the anesthesia left me dull headed but with a clear vision all at once; and finally into a panoramic tale that crosses generations, centuries, national boundaries and cultural barriers—winding up in allegorical fashion as the best medicine for all of life’s lubricated, industrial impositions upon our souls—ESCAPE!