The phrase, in the introduction to this site, “local solidarities that can gesture beyond themselves toward broader horizons of moral concern” is borrowed from Michael Sandel’s engaging public discussion with a group of British teenagers and young adults at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, on Democracy and the Common Good: What do we Value?
My gratitude extends out to all those who have sought the common good alongside me, who have shaped contexts for me embedded with permission to grow: To my parents, my brother; each of my teachers and mentors, my music teachers, Edmund and Carol Dry, my history teachers, Simon Hyde, John Fern, John Maddicott; to my friends, from each period of my life, from England to California to Asia to France; to my Embassy Network bash‘mates, Feytopians, and the forest where symphonies of sights and sounds and silences wove their way into meaning.
“bash‘mates” is a term from Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series of speculative fiction books, which depicts a future where peoples are free to choose between post-nation groupings representing different legal and socio-economic systems, and also between “bashes” representing their chosen familial co-living context. Another gift from Ada Palmer’s universe, is the term, “vocateur“, one who is intensely devoted to their vocation. Intended as one of the highest compliments a person can pay, my deepest thanks to all the vocateurs who have inspired me with their co-presence, in time, space, and moral concern.