The Secret of Contentment

Maryrose Carroll gives a narrative of her life underscored by her discovery of finding contentment.

She gives a vision she shares with her husband's friend, Allen Ginsberg, which refers to the fact that

"our refusal to coexist with other life forms is causing a planetary ecological crisis". She warms that we have valued material things over Nature in her description of the Santa Fe Opera's presentation of Le Rossignol.

She reveals the deep and poetic love with her husband, Paul Carroll, and describes his success in fighting literary censorship from the University of Chicago and the United States Post Office.

Her home, the unique landscape and people in the mountains of Appalachia are described as well as her success in fighting of suicide.

Andrei Codrescu, former NPR correspondent, has written: This is such tough, melancholic and beautiful writing. It is personal, but useful in so many ways. Suicide is now on a lot of folk's minds, even if they don't have a gene or an angel."