While reading President-Elect Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope”, I was struck by a metaphor in Chapter Three that he used to describe the U.S. Constitution. . . “[its understanding] requires a shift in metaphors, one that sees our democracy not as a house to be built, but a conversation to be had.”
It is this very basic philosophy that explains that people (and their perspectives) matter and it is their proximity to other people and perspectives that allows them to create a collective sense of place by, literally, breathing life and words into their surroundings.
People and place matter.
