“Ken’s left for the office already,” his mother informed Carla when she entered the kitchen the next morning. Seeing the disappointment on Carla’s face, she added, “He works much too hard—always has, even when he was a boy. Forever some urgent project or other.”

“That’s one of the things that attracted me to him,” said Carla. “He was on a mission, going somewhere, not wasting his time but doing something worthwhile, goal-oriented.”