I’m writing from Santa Barbara, one of my favorite places on earth. I went to college here and have come back now and then to see friends, and visit our colleagues at Sage. This week I’m here for a combined personal and professional project, a meeting I’ve helped arrange between the College of Creative Studies, which I attended, and Director Sarah Pritchard and her team at the UCSB Libraries. Sarah is on our advisory board and we’re hoping in some way to highlight the accomplishments of the College of Creative Studies in a joint project to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2007.

On Saturday I went to the book signing–for The Cocaine Chronicles–of an old friend from CCS, novelist Jervey Tervalon, at BEA in New York, so it has been a week of renewed connections. I was struck by how short a time 20 years seems when I see certain people again . . . somehow, in spite what are often enormous differences in the paths we’ve taken, we recognize each other for the people we were, and are, without a moment’s hesitation. This brings to mind the question of individual identity–a topic with many technology and security implications, and also of fascinating social consequences. Indeed, you’ll be seeing a major Berkshire work on the topic before long!