A World Needing a Map

We seem to be increasingly destination-challenged with each passing year, as familiar old grids of established -ologies and -isms are losing their durability. Amusing little systems, big systems, too, of meaning are going, going, gone.

If we have trouble finding our way along in the structures and systems we have built, where do we find the wisdom to navigate life and its meaning?

GM Food: Hard to Swallow

Emerging genetic technology promises us vast new opportunities in the food industry. But there are many controversies and many unknowns, giving the question “What’s for dinner?” new weight and urgency.

This article is short primer on genetically modified (GM) foods, including its most controversial aspect, terminator seeds, and some ethical thoughts about their use and regulation.

Originally published in re:generation quarterly, 6.4; 2000. Edited slightly for the Web.

Am I a Liberal?

Three times that I know of last year I got caught in the crossfire of America’s so-called culture war by three people who think they know me better than I know myself. Each responded to pieces I’d written be labeling me ‘liberal ‘— end of discussion. The epithet shut down any further thinking on their part about what I had been arguing for or against, like dragsters braking hard at the end of a quarter-mile run.