Journal of a Superfluous Woman: A Collection of Essays documents a woman's struggle to understand life and her place in it. Her experience with breast cancer forms the catalyst for an examination of conscience--a looking back in order that she might move forward. These essays attempt to put into perspective childhood memories, race, religion, relationships, career choices, training versus education, illness, death, and a perception that the world still undervalues the role of the unwed and childless. It is said that she who writes about herself and her time writes about all people for all time. Here, I. R. King offers herself as a metaphor through which some of life's foibles and paradoxes can be examined in the quest for improvement. Journal of A Superfluous Woman: A Collection of Essays is a journey of reflection and introspection. It is a quest for the unknown and the unknowable, an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, and a search for meaning, purpose, and wholeness. The recognition that duality is imbedded in the depths of reality forms the basis for creating peace, within and without, and for moving toward balance, equipoise, and love.