viii
ECOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
special thanks to Janet Aalfs, Sally Bellenose, Susan Stinson, Allison Smith, Susan
Edelstien, Elena Deutch, and Hillary Stain To the folks in the living-room study
group of 96, I give great thanks to you all; Zoe Erwin, Erie Toensmeir, Tania
Tolchin, Rebecca De Witt, Jonathan Stevens, and Nancy Lustgarten, for receiving my
ideas with intelligent criticism and generous enthusiasm—and a special thanks to
Bob Spivey for endless moral support, encouragement, and willingness to laugh and
listen. Big thanks too, to James Creedon and Morgan Kennedy who speed-read their
way through die book in (one of) its last incarnations, giving important insights and
suggestions.
Thanks also to the friends who helped me dirough the last pangs of producing
this manuscript. Thanks to Brian Tokar, Cindy Milstein, Peter Staudenmaier, and in
particular, Greta Gaard who painstakingly took care to make sure the book entered
die world in good form. I thank Greta for die years of encouragement and wisdom
which have motivated and inspired me. Thanks also to Carolyn Merchant for die
time and generosity it takes to support die arrival of a new book.
Friends and family have given me strengdi that has made this book possible. I
am indebted to liana Boss-Markowitz, Allison De Fnsn, and Nancy Bael for decades
(!) of love, humor, and endurance, for being crucial touch stones diat make life
navigable. I thank Alison Prine for reminding me always of courage and imagination,
and of course, poetry. Crow and Clove have provided me widi years of patience,
advice, and wisdom. Iiillary Mullins, I thank for being my first feminist buddy and
Jaime Morton, I diank for music and a solid first try. To my newer friends in die
Valley, Beverly, Bob and Sam Naidus-Spivoy, Nancy Lustgarten, Valija Ivalds, Lisa
Beskin and Robin, Allison Smith, Sally and Cindy, Susan Stinson, and Elena Deutch, I
diank you all for providing me widi sustenance and phone-friendship during periods
when I could not leave my computer. And to my incredible family, thanks to my
parents who have padendy supported every page of diis journey, my sisters Laura,
Carol, and my brodier-in-law Jorge, who keep me anchored in love and humor from
year to year. Thanks to Allen, Judy, Jane, and Paul Kronick whom continue to
provide generosity and warmdi. And I wish to express deepest appreciation to
Sandra and Dick Smidi for providing endless encouragement, insight, and support to
pursue the work and life I love.
Thanks to Steve Chase who first put die bug in my ear, Pavtas Stavropoulos
and Rikt Madiews at Aigis who got die ball rolling, and I owe many, many thanks to
Drmi trios Roussopoulos and Linda Barton of Black Rose Books who were able to get
die book out into the world.
I am most grateful to Murray Bookchin whose relendess vision, bravery, and
brilliance lias blazed a trail upon which I have traveled, and hope to continue to
travel, for many years to come. I am reminded daily of my good fortune to have
found in Bookchin a mentor, generous and encouraging, who has been willing and
able to gendy prod me to recognize my own potential to think, write, and speak
about revolutionary ideas. For Elis, and for so much more, I will always be indebted.
This book would not have been written wrdiout Lizzie Donahue, leprechaun
extraordinaire, whose love, encouragement, humor, and flair for die absurd, gave me
die peace of mind to finally sit down and write.