As a species, we've somehow survived large and small ice ages, genetic bottlenecks, plagues, world wars and all manner of natural disasters, but I sometimes wonder if we'll survive our own ingenuity.

After all, coffee is bitter, a flavor from the forbidden and dangerous realm.

poetry had everything to teach me about life.

There's no place you can go on the prairie that you don't hear the white noise of the wind, steady and rough as surf curling along a non-existant shore.

We try to exile ourselves more and more from nature - not always consciously: We build houses; we dismiss nature; nature has to be outside, because we're inside. God forbid something like a cockroach comes inside, or some dust.

Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is.

Choice is a signature of our species.