Thanks so much for commenting @droucil. I really enjoyed reading your post and look forward to many exchanges with you and others about themes we all find so arresting. You're right, this is a lot of text, especially just to introduce myself. But you should have seen the initial 7,000 words I had to pare down! I needed to introduce my project Manifest Orders as much as put myself forward. The two threads are intimately intertwined. But Manifest Orders is really why I'm here. Anyhow, I do plan to reduce the length of future postings. I hope to be guided by other people's interests as much as my own. So, I hope you'll feel free to comment and make suggestions once you've had time to look the content over. Thanks again.