The Way Things Were

Stories of the everyday. Of customs that braid events together and shape lives and destinies. Of how human and personal growth is bound to the day-to-day—to the tasks that seem small at first glance yet leave a vast and lasting mark. Told with a light, engaging touch, these pages chronicle personal, cultural, environmental, and demographic realities, tracing traditions and the evolving forms of political and social participation as tools that can carry our cultural inheritance forward—for the better. Culture continually renews itself because it is always in motion. Each of its elements —trees, animals, the sea, and people— plays an essential role, both in daily life and in what we bequeath to future generations.