Through the Lens of Reality

In Through the Lens of Reality: Thoughts from a Maturing Grandpa, author Jerry Rabe offers insights on the challenges we all now face— the population explosion, global warming, and energy needs; our nation’s troubled finances; and the fact that a billion people are struggling to survive while trapped in abject poverty.

Rabe’s message is one of “hope and love and possibilities,” but it’s also a disturbing message; “an all-important wake-up call … about you and me and our future. … It connects our individual beliefs and conduct—the ideologies and myths we hold and the decisions we make—with the fate of the nation and the world we will leave our children.”

Rabe addresses such issues as the Middle East conflict; the presence of evil; our nation’s tragic loss of character after 9/11; our individual struggle to live a happy, meaningful lives; and more. His is not idle meandering; Rabe has contemplated what the “gift of existence” means, and is passionate about sharing his visionary message.

Gerald Rabe—better known as “Jerry”—was born in southeastern Minnesota. He spent his early years on a dairy farm near the small town of Oak Center, a mere widening of the road with a country store, a farm equipment dealer, a creamery and a dance hall. Shortly after high school, Jerry joined the local U.S. Army Reserve which was activated during the Cold War’s Berlin crisis. After returning to the farm, Jerry made a life changing decision to leave the family farm and pursue a college education in chemistry.

He met his future wife, Diane, while an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota; they were married while he was a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His first employer was the Procter & Gamble company in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as a food research scientist. Several years later he accepted a technical management position with The Pillsbury Company where he was employed until retirement. His primary work interest was incorporating technology into the strategic plans of the corporation, and understanding the role of diet in chronic disease development.

After retirement, Jerry began the study of how people form the beliefs they hold and how these beliefs mold their decisions. It is this interest, combined with his view on the uniqueness of our times, which is the basis for his first book, Through the Lens of Reality: Thoughts from a Maturing Grandpa.