I Am Only So Beautiful As The

Slavery Was A Central Concern Of Governance Form The Time Of The First Nation-state. The Code Of Hammurabi, The Earliest Know Set Of Laws For Governing An Empire, Prescribed Death For Anyone Who Harbored A Fugitive Or Otherwise Helped A Slave To Escape. The Relationship Between The Law And Bondage Goes Back Even Farther: Indeed, The Oldest Extant Legal Documents Don't Concern The Sale Of Land, Houses, Or Even Animals, But Slaves.

Have You Ever Felt Love? Did You Need Scientific Proof Of This? How Would You Have Definitively And Scientifically Proved Your Love Existed? If You Could Not Prove It, Would That Mean Your Love Didn't Exist? What Would You Trust: Your Own Feelings, Or Science?

Forests Precede Us And Deserts Dog Our Heels.

Question Four: What Book Would You Give To Every Child? Answer: I Wouldn't Give Them A Book. Books Are Part Of The Problem: This Strange Belief That A Tree Has Nothing To Say Until It Is Murdered, Its Flesh Pulped, And Then (human) People Stain This Flesh With Words. I Would Take Children Outside And Put Them Face To Face With Chipmunks, Dragonflies, Tadpoles, Hummingbirds, Stones, Rivers, Trees, Crawdads. That Said, If You're Going To Force Me To Give Them A Book, It Would Be The Wind In The Willows, Which I Hope Would Remind Them To Go Outside.

If We Celebrate Life With All Its Contradictions, Embrace, Experience, And Ultimately Live With It, A Chance Exists For A Spiritual Life Filled Not Only With Pain And Untidiness, But Also With Joy, Community, And Creativity.