Preface and Acknowledgments

Abstract

People strive to be normal; however, the realities of life are very diff erent from the ideal. People have compelling concerns and precious stakes to defend; and although they would be “quite helpless without the power of cultural templates to guide and sustain them” (Uni Wikan, quoted in Becker 1998), they live their lives uniquely. In other words, events occur continuously that do not fi t with a vision of how life should be, and when they do they aff ect people’s individualized views of the world. (Becker 1998: 16)