Parke Burgess, author of Our Tragic Flaw: A Case for Nonviolence, spent five years in senior management and fundraising at Sightline Institute (then known as Northwest Environment Watch), and has served as Managing Editor of Communities Magazine and Secretary of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Before this he was Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral Studies at California State University, and served on the faculties of the Marrowstone Music Festival and the Northwest School for the Arts. He currently maintains a studio where he offers private cello lessons. Burgess has written numerous articles on a variety of subjects and a book-length doctoral dissertation called Karajan the Interpreter, A Critique. He holds a doctorate from the University of Washington, and a BA from Yale University. Parke Burgess has also studied Zen for more than a dozen years. He studied in the lineage of Zen Master Seung Sahn and eventually spent nearly a year in intensive monastic training at the Providence Zen Center. Currently, he practices under the guidance of Zen Master Jack Duffy, a student of Robert Aitken. He lives in Tacoma, Washington with his life partner, Ann, and her three wonderful kids.