about me

There’s an Indian parable that goes like this: A group of blind men stumbles upon an elephant. None has experienced an elephant before. Each man touches a different part of the elephant: one touches the trunk, one the tusk, the leg, the stomach, and so on, and conceptualizes the whole based on the part they are touching. They argue with one another about what it is, and eventually attack one another, each believing with the fervor of complete certainty that they know the truth of the elephant. What they don’t know is that the others are telling the truth, too, and that the truth does not match up with their concepts.

My name is Anna, and I guess you can call me an elephant scientist. I study the elephant through the parts I’ve touched and others’ accounts of the rest. I try to interpret parts of the elephant for people who’ve only ever touched different parts. I didn’t know this was what I was doing until I recognized the elephant. Most of us don’t know we’re elephant scientists, but all of us are.

What I actually study is nameless. Call it God, the Tao, enlightenment, utopia, the universe, nature, Source, existence, Truth, 42, the smell of burnt almonds; the names just get in the way. I report on what I find in essays, stories, art, community projects, and in how I live my life. I tend to be most interested in the psychological, intepersonal and societal parts of the elephant.

I do other work beyond this website, but this is what you’re getting from me here.

Feel free to contact me.