I'll miss imagining Dana composing her letter in the farm kitchen to strains of Verdi and the aroma of baking loaves. About the human genome project, for example. About global warming. About why an Office of Faith-Based Programs might serve neither faith nor community needs. I will also wonder why every editorial page couldn't make space for this intelligent and loving voice, this voice we so manifestly need, amid the ideological clatter that passes for debate on public policy today.
Life is unexpectedly fragile.
Life is unbearably precious. Life is an unknowable mystery that seeks always to teach, whether or not we are prepared to learn. Wherever our convictions lead us and wherever our homes place us, Dana would say, we must not take the communities we build together for granted. Edward C. Wolf is communications director at Ecotrust, in Portland, Oregon. Dispatches Global Citizen all dates .