background:

06 February 1999:

We no longer have reasons to stay in Washington. We moved here 20 years ago to raise a family. Now that the girls are moved out and are in college, we can tread in territories that are a little more chaotic.

Washington is a political town (duh!). The culture is a political culture, and the art of this culture is the art of politics -- compromise. The central risk-taking in a compromise culture is to push an idea or position yet not end up outside the circle of viable options. The hero is that one who can keep as many options open as long as possible while maintaining a personal and intellectual integrity.

We, however, are makers and artists, and find this kind of culture inconsistent with our tasks. We think we prefer to be in a culture that defines risk-taking as the constant choosing between options and the pulling of the boundaries wider. The hero is the one who refuses to compromise in the selection of choices, even to the detriment of personal well-being.

(Of course, the hero is the one who was right; either whose sense of integrity was in tune with the needs of the time or whose choices pointed out the direction where the culture had to go. The tragedians are those who would be heroes, except that the content of their actions looked backward to a time already spent. Then there are those who are boring, unimaginative, or just plain wrong-headed.)

So we are off to New York, the quintessential put it out there, in your face kind of place.