His courage, compassion and determination created the model for us. Now I get the feeling he s sticking around for awhile to see how things go without him. As I consider the many difficult issues facing our region and ponder how Ken might have voted, I realize that deciding what is right starts with the frame we put around the picture we see. It is our vision that discriminates. Vision based on a reverence for nature leads us to a different place than a bulldozer philosophy of human supremacy where man suppresses nature in order to obtain wealth and power at any cost.
Vision comes largely out of a sense of place.
If our sense of place includes only our physical self, our home, street and neighborhood, with roads connecting our city to others and those cities linked to others in the world by planes, trains and automobiles we will make decisions that expand and improve those systems and our urban values. If instead our sense of neighborhood is based exclusively on the people who live there, we will make decisions solely based on human values and needs. If, on the other hand, our sense of place starts with the highest watersheds of trickling spring water, leading to creeks and great rivers which flow into an ocean which is fed by countless watersheds that bring animation to a land filled with life forms of which we are a part, we will base our decisions on preserving the watershed and the life it supports. If neighborhood to us consists of all the plants, animals and humans, we will make decisions which result in the enrichment of all. We know that our property is not lawn and flower garden only but is actually habitat that we steward.