First step

"The future can't be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being. Systems can't be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned. We can't surge forward with certainty into a world of no surprises, but we can expect surprises and learn from them and even profit from them. We can't impose our will upon a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone." Donella Meadows, Dancing With Systems, http://www.sustainer.org/pubs/Dancing.html

What do the terms "community" and "neighbor" and "boundaries" mean in action? Where is the boundary to my community? How do artificial geopolitical boundaries relate to natural boundaries? What do we as members of this county/town owe to residents of other counties and towns downstream from us? Webster's defines ecology as "the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment." Systems and ecologies, neighborhoods and communities. These are the issues I plan to explore through this blog.