Our ancestors understood the world as a being in the sense that it was a companion, a teacher, and in some ways a competitor. But there was a more urgent and crucial aspect of this relationship: the world was the living library which would respond rapidly to any question appropriately offered.

Instead of checking out a book, using Google, or buying some expert’s advice, our ancestors asked the world. They asked the sky, the Sun, the moon, and living places. They asked the trees and stars. They asked the wind and darkness. The cave. And the world would send the living answer forth to meet the querent. In person.

To this day, the library still works this way, but the majority of the existing humans, with all of their hubris, guns, science and books, cannot remember this, will not believe it, and thus… are unable to form or offer their questions adequately.

Even today, some few of us remain who remember the library, its nature, and the profound intimacy of these relationships. I hope you will set down the human stories and begin to ask the questions again… in your own way, voice, time and place. The library is open. It is our species who closed up.