Dialogues on function allocation

Irish poet Seamus Heaney, reflecting on the co-existence of industry and ag riculture, the acorn and the rusted bolt, the engine shunting and the trott ing horse in Derry when he was growing up, asks: Is it any wonder when I thought I would have second thoughts? His dialogical sensibility to "both-and", Derry as both industrial and agri cultural, modern and traditional, left Heaney "suffering the limits of each claim" (Heaney, 1998, p. 295). This discomfort with limiting "either-or" c laims on descriptions of a personal history reminds us of the dialogicality of people's meaning making (McCarthy & O'Connor, 1999). Given that dialogi cality, is it any wonder that thoughts steal second thoughts? (C) 2000 Acad emic Press.