After graduation from Harvard, Mahala Bishop spent years in Washington working as a political assistant to Robert Kennedy and George McGovern. Following this heady life, she became a potter, a mediator, and teacher of English as a foreign language. She lives on Cape Cod and Maine.Mahala became a victim of bipolar disorder in her fifties and uses her life experience, her writing ability and multitudes of notes from manic episodes to create this informational book."My intent here is to present the inside view of both sides of bipolar disorder and then the outside view of how my mania intruded on the lives of so many others. My goal is to educate and inform readers about the nature of this mean, unfair illness. And I hope in the end readers will realize that every kindness, every caring and understanding gesture will alleviate our shame and help us deal with our reality."