Thank you, New Society Publishers, for hosting me for a day on your lovely island! It takes two ferry rides to get there from Seattle or Vancouver.

The press that publishes the Mediator’s Handbook puts out trend-setting books that run way ahead of the mainstream press in promoting sustainable communities. Their lucky staff do this from an island outpost on the far western edge of the North American continent (not counting Alaska…), gazing out their office windows at pine forest, and playing with the charming dogs that accompany their humans to work.

My first encounter with New Society Publishers was in 1985. The activists who started it were living in Philadelphia neighborhoods west of the University of Pennsylvania — blocks and blocks of aging brick rowhomes and, nearer the university, larger victorian era twin houses. The crack epidemic was at its height and many middle class residents and graduate students had moved elsewhere. What a distant reality in time and place from where they are now!

NSP left for the West Coast several years after they published our Peacemaking in your Neighborhood book. After years of phone and emails and snail mails, it was a pleasure to meet their dedicated and hard-working crew in person.

And to plot with them about next year’s new edition!