Chapter 1 Emergent Visions Summary and Analysis

Chapter one, Emergent Visions, establishes the premise of the book. It is a study of five women who are composing their lives or they are shaping their lives as they go along rather than picking a static goal for success and moving toward it. The author believes that today women and men are not following the examples of former generations. Instead, they are composing their lives in ways that are not as clear as they were in the past. The book will compare life to an improvisatory art.

In the past, it was admirable to strive toward permanence and stability in life. However, those assumptions have not been true for many of history's most creative individuals. The author claims that they are becoming inappropriate in today's constantly changing world and that a continual redefinition of life is...