Welcome to Orion - The Magazine of Culture, Creativity & Change

Photograph | Bob Krist/Corbis

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

The Culture of Owning
BY ERIC T. FREYFOGLE
Wanted: a new concept of liberty that doesn't equate "property rights" with personal freedom.

The Accidental Wetland
TEXT BY MICHELLE NIJHUIS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN TROTTER
An unlikely sluice could take the parched delta of the Colorado back to the future.

Birding Babylon
BY JONATHAN TROUERN-TREND
If you wear full body armor and dodge the mortar fire, Iraq's a great place to go to add to your life list.

ART OF LIVING

Language Garden
BY SUSANNE ANTONETTA
An orangutan with attitude meets a writer with a weakness for Shakespeare.

An Ecstasy of Place
PAINTINGS AND TEXT BY DON RESNICK
By representing his dedication to nature on canvas, an artist tries to show landscapes in "a new and vital way."

GROUNDSWELL

Grace Before Dinner
TEXT BY DEBORAH MADISON
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PABLO BALBONTÍN ARENAS
Vive la difference! Small food producers from around the world celebrate their diversity as well as the values they share -- like flavor, like fairness.

The Union Makes Them Strong
BY LAURA PASKUS
Steel workers promoting the Sierra Club? Believe it. Blue collar workers blend with green in a quest for more and better American jobs.

COLUMNS

From the Faraway Nearby
Now Showing: Democracy
BY REBECCA SOLNIT
Why we might want to choose an inconvenient life.

Small Change
On Not Quite Getting It
BY BILL MCKIBBEN
There seems to be no limit to the human genius for having all the facts and drawing the wrong conclusions.

The Tangled Bank
Consolation Prize
BY ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE
Just outside the doorstep: a sure antidote for what's ailing us.

DEPARTMENTS

From the Editors

Contributors

Mailbox

Sacred & Mundane

Point of View
Sabbath Environmentalism
BY NORMAN WIRZBA
An old, old custom could save us -- and the Earth -- from ourselves.

Poetry BY MOIRA LINEHAN

Poetry BY A. R. AMMONS

Health and the Environment
Gender Sensitive
BY CHARLOTTE BRODY
A last bastion of male dominance may be about to fall, and none too soon.

Blueprint for Change
Growing Roofs
BY TINA KELLEY
Roof gardens aren't just for penthouse apartments, and the greenery up there has a job to do.

Orion Grassroots Network
Dedicated to Woodland Sprawl
Spotlight: Highlands Nature Sanctuary

Coda
Fishing Lessons
BY CYNTHIA DAGNAL MYRON

Orion Magazine Wins UIPA's Highest Award
After receiving three new Utne Independent Press Award nominations for 2004, Orion magazine took the top honor -- General Excellence. (The other nominations were in the categories of Best Essays and Environmental Coverage). Over the years Orion has received 30 UIPA nominations in various categories, and won many; but this is the first time Orion has garnered the highest award. We are proud and grateful.