Barry Middleton is a psychotherapist who lives in Sarasota, Florida and works at a local psychiatric hospital. He is 56 years old. The picture was taken in 1968 by a college friend. He has one car, one kid (Peter), one cat (Wally), and one house. He is interested in "everything", he says because "if I knew everything, then I would understand why this world is so screwed up." If there was a theory of everything it might be called Tessellation Theory. The originators of such a theory would be the Tessellatians, hence the title of the book. Of course we know that we will never have all the answers. So, Barry goes fishing, builds things, enjoys gardening, sings, writes, and plays hard as he continues his own search for the patterns of life.