ROUGHDRAFT Ill Centers ... It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning When the light drips through the shutters like the dew, I arise, and face the sunrise, And do the things my father used to do. Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet Stand before a glass and tie my tie. Vine leaves tap my window Dew-drops sing to the garden stones The robin chirps in a chinaberry tree Repeating three clear tones ... Conrad Aiken, Sen/in: A Biography from Collected Poems of Conrad Aiken, Oxford University Press, 3rd Edition, 1958. If only because, this morning, on a "swiftly tilting planet" the air was with messages: egg, 7 minutes and a half . .. bus leaves 5th & james 8:44 . .. the green shirt, the green shirt could use an iron ... frost-on-theporch UNEMPLOYMENT RISES TO TEN AND A HALF PERCENT; six minutes for espresso from Ceylonand, yes, Barbara Walters rises to greet the television set. It is by now commonplace to hear that one of the most significant developments in the twentieth century may be the creation of a global village, unified by electronic impulses. As relationships between energy phenomena and information are discovered, our planet and the universe may be seen more and more as an organi communication system in which each energy exchange is a message exchange at a given level. This view creates a complex crisis when set alongside existing paradigms of unlimited growth, centralized power, big institutions and specialization. That hundreds of centers are springing up all across the nation is some indication that centers are effective crisis-processors for converging environmental, cultural and economic crises. Trapped on the outer limbs of huge bureaucracies and confronted by an information explosion, individuals seek access to information which will better enable them to make decisions, and which will provide continuity to their lives. Though purposes and focuses vary, most centers emphasize at least one or any combination of the following functions: (1) information gathering for research (2) practicum skills such as building windmills and water wheels (3) information networking (4) legislative and lobbying activities and (5) public education.
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