Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

My good friend Gene Garver made a remark years ago that at fi rst seemed daunting and has since become a guide to ambiguity and choice: “ Opportunity and danger are the place of action. ” What ’ s daunting is the implication that action occurs at an intersection of forces, and beware the fool who is not mindful, like a pedestrian looking in only one direction when crossing the street. The fool may get across safely, but then again might not: the outcome may have more to do with the alertness of a good driver or the luck of a timely red light. The remark leads beyond caution to invitation: if we want to act responsibly, we need fi rst to respond to the fullness of the place we ’ re in. The place is formless until we choose to de fi ne it by paying attention, observing it in detail, drawing back from it to note context and circumstance, becoming mindful of what lies within and what shapes it from without. The place of action is a place in the world outside as well as a place in the mind. The act of paying attention draws us into this place, in some ways altering it: attention is a way of participating. When we participate, we establish a share in this place, and in this participation, we are both responding and becoming responsible. Opportunity and danger are the moral extremes of any choice we make. Awareness of these extremes makes us responsible for the action we take.