If you’re asking a question with an answer, chances are you’re asking the wrong question.

This plus many other insights were part of the exchange between Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, and Mary Berry at this year’s Schumacher Lecture, part of the terrific Schumacher Center for a New Economics. If you are interested in how to cultivate a sense of place, of connection, of homecoming, I can think of no better trio to inspire and enlighten your path.

There is far too much wisdom packed into this conversation for me to recount, so let me just refer you to the full video so you can enjoy the complete context and nuance. I highly recommend accompanying this with selected readings from Berry’s It All Turns on Affection and Jackson’s Nature as Measure.

You can view the delightful library of past Schumacher lectures here, with speakers that include Van Jones, Jane Jacobs, Judy Wicks, Hazel Henderson, Vandana Shiva, Otto Scharmer, Majora Carter, Bill McKibben, and many more.

Knowledge without affection leads us astray every time.     – Wendell Berry

Tell me, Honeybees – where does your knowledge meet your affection?