What Gets Called 'the Sixties' Left A

I've Been Gratified To See Over The Twenty Or So Years Of My Writing Life The West Become Less Of A Colony Of The East; Maybe New Technologies And Too Much Travel Undermine The Idea Of Provinciality.

Places Matter. Their Rules, Their Scale, Their Design Include Or Exclude Civil Society, Pedestrianism, Equality, Diversity (economic And Otherwise), Understanding Of Where Water Comes From And Garbage Goes, Consumption Or Conservation. They Map Our Lives.

Every Minute Of Every Hour Of Every Day You Are Making The World, Just As You Are Making Yourself, And You Might As Well Do It With Generosity And Kindness And Style.

If Gold Has Been Prized Because It Is The Most Inert Element, Changeless And Incorruptible, Water Is Prized For The Opposite Reason -- Its Fluidity, Mobility, Changeability That Make It A Necessity And A Metaphor For Life Itself. To Value Gold Over Water Is To Value Economy Over Ecology, That Which Can Be Locked Up Over That Which Connects All Things.

We Are Entering An Era Of Heightened Disaster, Thanks To Climate Change. Being Prepared For Disaster Will Mean Being Prepared To Sift Truth From Rumour, And Being Prepared To Adjust Our Worldview.