Still Running Off at the Keyboard

NVM: When you were a child, could you have imagined in your wildest dreams that your life would be as it is now?

JT: There are two answers. The first answer is "No," because it is impossible to imagine exactly the way things are going to be. At the same time, I did have a sense that there was something brewing like this, although I never would have guessed that it would be quite in the form that it is. I was raised in a very Irish Catholic home and was having deep, mystical experiences when I was young. The way I was raised, that just meant that you were supposed to be a priest. So, that's what I did. When I got out of high school, I entered the seminary and spent two years on that path before I realized "that wasn't quite it" and I began a much deeper search, which led me to where I am today. There has always been that part of me that has been searching and longing. I always knew it would be a very public role. It wasn't until 1994 when I was given the Peace Prayers from the twelve major religions of the world that it all came together.