I have been reading Thomas Merton since I was thirteen, now for over fifty-six years. I wrote a Masters Thesis in theology and literature at Emory University in 1974, a study of Merton's autobiography entitled "Toward the Only Read City in America: Paradise and Utopia in the Autobiography of Thomas Merton". As I look back, my life has been rich with different experiences: a Jesuit seminarian in the New Orleans Province; service in Vietnam and Italy in the Navy; teaching high school; working for the government; founding and growing a ten-store retail operation with two partners (still going); and then formal work with Thomas Merton's legacy since 1988 that included being the director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky; a term as President of the International Thomas Merton Society; and administering a small retreat house, Bethany Spring, one mile away from Merton's Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, where I presented retreats on many topics but most were based on the ten-booklet series for small-group dialogue that I created entitled "Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton". My favorites among the many editions I produced of Merton's writing include "The Intimate Merton", "Dialogues with Silence", "A Year with Thomas Merton", and "Choosing to Love the World: Thomas Merton on Contemplation". "Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton" is perhaps the best work that I've done to bring Merton's teachings on "contemplative living" to a wide audience. "Bridges" is perhaps my most useful contribution to Thomas Merton's legacy.