How our attitudes are shaped and defended may be more changeable than we realize.

My passion for human ecology was not a drive for closure—but rather the joy of endless openings and newfound connections. There is no final goal or perfect completion, only the expanding experience of being alive.

Our bodies and minds are the current manifestations of a transhuman heritage. We are the burgeoning borders of life, along with every other living thing. All the creatures through which we have unfolded still linger, however faintly, within the design of our being. The more we know of this, the richer the feeling and experience of personal ecology.

Viewing ecology through the lens of individual life histories or the life cycles of species makes it easy to grasp the Hindu conception of life as drama. Every creature and plant has a separate path of sustenance and survival on the way to their final dance with Shiva.

Unlike the clonal longevity of asexual organisms, sexually reproduced plants and animals usually have briefer, individual life cycles. In short, the enormous diversity afforded by the evolutionary invention of sexual reproduction came with a price—death of the individual.

Ecological awareness expands the context of life; it also enlarges who we are as a person.

The story of our human lineage is continually enlarged, almost daily, by discoveries from physical anthropology, archeology, and genetics.

Sometimes, when we are far from clocks and schedules, we can still recapture a lost sense of place-based time. On a relaxing camping trip or a long day outdoors, perhaps, we can slip back into the rhythm of the sun.

The inventions of microscopy and telescopy shattered the boundaries of ordinary human perception and fueled the scientific revolution.

Discovering the threads that constitute actual interactions is an essential means of making sense of the world. But perception of overall patterns of things that are contextually related is equally important.