My life is pretty much controlled by beasts, it always has been.

I engage with beasts directly and very physically in my space: cats, dogs, mice, pack rats, horses, birds, squirrels, dragonflies, bees, cockroaches, fire ants. Other interactions are less tangible: parasites, bacteria, viruses.

Some beasts are not physical at all. Yet their presence is equally impactful (maybe more so). When I think about my family history and stories of urgent emigration, fleeing war zones wit ...