A life-long mission has been to counter the notion that political engagement is the spinach we must eat in order to have the dessert of freedom.

The problem is that our whole tribe - if you will, the larger community of humanity itself - is on a death march ecologically and in terms of the intensification of violence and conflict.

I think of Wangari Mathai in Kenya. If she started out saying she wanted to plant 20 million trees, she would have been laughed at. In fact, the foresters and the government did laugh at her. They said, "Villagers? Un-schooled villagers? Planting trees? No, no, no, it takes foresters." So she planted trees anyway.

The notion that economic life is a distinct realm, governed by immutable laws of narrow self-interest, is giving way to a much older notion: economic life is only one strand in the rich web of human relationships.

We can choose who we bring into our lives. We can choose who will reinforce our risk taking.

Old models of farming with chemicals and credit mostly favored privileged men.

Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.