"I was born late and have been slow ever since. I was supposed to be born in April, but I arrived on June 19. Explaining my late arrival, the doctor said, 'Somebody made a mistake, ' and I took offense to that." -Joe Perry 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 Forrest Gump (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. Journal of an Average American 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. 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 uncommon after all.