<i>"I was born late and have been slow ever since.<br>
I was supposed to be born in April, but I arrived on June 19. <br>
Explaining my late arrival, the doctor said, 'Somebody made a mistake,'
and I took offense to that."</i><p>

-Joe Perry<p>

Like life, Joe Perry's stories are a mixture of the sometimes humorous and sometimes serious. They all take place around the same time period as <i>Forrest Gump</i> (but without all that emphasis on running). And like Forrest, the author himself is an average person who has lived a life that is anything but. During his years of military service, he was a messenger for President Lyndon Baines Johnson. During his years of spiritual service as a minister, he was blessed to be called to as a messenger for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords on a higher plane.<p>

<i>Journal of an Average American</i> started out as Joe's private journal, but it quickly grew into a book of introspection, punctuated with philosophy, poetry, sermons, articles, laments, and history. Throughout, it celebrates average people as its main characters and source of all knowledge, insight, and humor.<p>

As a common person, writing about common people and their common experiences, Joe Perry was surprised to come to the epiphany that people and their experiences are really very <i>uncommon</i> after all.