As probably anyone who reads my words in Rethinking the World will recognize, my worldview has been greatly influenced by the work of a teacher and author named Daniel Quinn. Consequently, in addition to seeking publishers for my own writing, I've sought to increase awareness of his work. As part of that effort, and with Quinn's permission, Lance Pierce and I are creating booklet versions of these six DQ speeches:

• The Little Engine that Couldn't
• Reaching for the Future with All Three Hands
• A Path of Hope for the Future
• Our Secret Plan (originally titled "On Investments")
• Technology and the Other War
• Protecting the Environment

Bev Courtney, a friend of Ishmael in Australia, and I have also created a pamphlet of our own called "Tunnel Vision: How We're Thinking Ourselves and Our Children to Death," which explores the question of worldview. DQ has read and given his "stamp of approval" for it by granting us permission to use his "Ishmael in thought" image on the cover.

In addition, I've created a version of DQ's "Talk About Wealth!" essay that's more suitable for copying and distribution than a simple text printout from Quinn's Ishmael website would be.

For several years now I and others in the Kansas City area have been distributing various versions of these resources around town. What this means is that we leave them at libraries, coffeehouses, bookstores, educational tables, and the like for people to pick up, not that we stand on street corners passing them out. I'm not saying that such an approach would be "wrong," but I think it's best to let people come to these ideas on their own, when they're ready.

If you'd like to read any of these essays on Daniel Quinn's website or download masters of any or all of these materials so you can make copies to distribute in your area, simply click on the appropriate link below (don't worry, they won't cost you anything). Links will be made active as each item is completed. All downloads are in Adobe Acrobat format, ready for printing and folding. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, it's also free, and can be found here .

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Printing up a .pdf master is easy. Simply print the pages one at a time, printing page one and page two back to back on the same sheet, and printing pages three and four back to back on a second sheet. Then, place the second sheet on top of the first and fold down the middle.

You can check up on the rest of what I'm doing by pulling up my entry in the Ishmael Community Network. Also, feel free to visit the online column I co-write with Bill Gresham called "Rethinking the World."

In addition to the pamphlet masters, I also have a few other things you might find of interest:

-A 1992 story about Daniel Quinn from a publication called Inquirer (e-mail me for this);

-A 1996 interview with Quinn (a very extensive one) from Illusions magazine;

-A recounting of an e-mail dialogue between DQ and Lance Pierce, also from Illusions, which illustrates both how Quinn thinks and how his ideas are often misunderstood; this one's very important to understanding what DQ is really saying;

-A 1997 interview with DQ from The Sun magazine (e-mail me to obtain this);

-A 1999 article about DQ from Texas Monthly magazine (e-mail me to obtain this);

-Files delineating the revisions made to Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael when they were released in later editions (e-mail me to obtain these);

-An essay by Thom Hartmann (author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight) called "The Lost People";

-An essay by Ronald Wright (author of Stolen Continents) called "Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme";

-An essay by Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs and Steel) called "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race";

-A joint statement issued by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London titled "Population Growth, Resource Consumption and a Sustainable World" (nice to have around to show to folks who think science is going to be able to solve our problems, because it makes clear that scientists aren't by any means convinced of that);

-And an essay by Donella Meadows titled "Places to Intervene in a System" that offers an introduction to systems thinking, the discipline that Quinn seeks to apply through his books.

Hope to hear from some of you soon. Take care.

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