Effective gardening requires the right setting: fertile soil, good light, water. It requires a strong view as to what should and should not be grown. It requires a loving willingness to tend constantly, to fertilize and nurture what we seed. It requires a hard-headed willingness to weed what does not belong. Great gardeners would never simply “let nature take its course.” They take responsibility for their gardens. Great gardeners assume change in weather and circumstance. They adapt. Great gardens are sustainable only with continuous investment and renewal. Great gardeners turn the soil and rotate the plantings. Human beings, it is said, originated in a garden. Perhaps this is why all of us understand so intuitively what it takes to be great gardeners.

The great challenge of this age--and the point of this book--is to rethink how we as citizens create change, how the economy really works, and what government is fundamentally for. The great challenge of this age is to change how we see, and by doing, improve our ability to adapt.

The Focus Page for this effort is at Gardens of Democracy on SystemsWiki.