J Perry Kelly

Your Mind is Your Mentor. J. Perry Kelly In first grade, James used block letters to forge his parent's signatures rather than hand them a report card littered with "F's." His teacher somehow discovered the fraud and everyone laughed. Decades later, no one laughed when he again played games with truth. Fifteen years ago, he squashed a life he loved by ignoring his common sense. Growing drowsy one sultry afternoon as he drove across Montana, he stopped for coffee but changed his mind. After all, he wasn't that sleepy; he had never dozed off while behind a wheel, and he deserved something cold after driving all day through an ozone shroud. Ten minutes later, he fell asleep and rolled his pickup down a gulch. When he awoke from a coma after several days, his body from the chest down lay unfeeling and inert--paralyzed for life. By deluding himself over a trivial whim, James destroyed a twenty-year railroad career that grew from digging trenches beneath the Midwestern sun to serving as interim Assistant Tra