Despite it all, the world and those in it must be cared for and cared about. An antidote to a spiraling path of self-destruction? And a different form of audience participation.

In a departure from the usual dialog format, Joyce Reeves, a psychotherapist and peace and social action advocate and Diane Reiner, a photographer, brought to the attendees an overview of the workshops they lead using the philosophy of Joanne Macy.

Calling this the "Time of the Great Turning," they emphasized the belief that in our times we are moving from an industrial society to one of caring for our world. "We must learn to keep our hearts open to beauty, love and hope" even though we now have a suicidal world beset with environmental ills." Instead of the usual question and answer dialog, the listeners were paired and took turns answering to each other questions like "What are the things you most love about being alive?" and "What do you fear the most and want most to change?"

The culminating exercise based on the Buddhist principle of silent walking encouraged the walkers to stop with another person, look deeply into his or her eyes and feel the pain there, before moving on to repeat this experience with another person.

Spectacular photographs that Diane Reiner made in Africa, Asia and the Middle East were on display during and after the talks.