Dear Friends,
This is the second Editor’s Note I’ve had to write. That is the danger of working far in advance. Who knows what the world will look like by the time this issue comes out? The first Note was written during that all-too-brief, hopeful, and strange time between getting vaccinated and the Delta variant. It had some great turns of phrase, about the world opening up again, and the pleasures of hiding from a party in the bathroom.
It no longer feels appropriate to start our issue that way. Do your best to imagine a vigorous, bracing proclamation about going forth. It’s dangerous to go alone, here take this, and so on.
But it looks like we won’t be going anywhere for a while. I am trying to remember what it means to start over. Can we find beauty in trying to start over?
Here is what I would like to do: Imagine Sisyphus happy. Get ready for fall by buying quilts and finding where I’ve put my flannels. Finish my coffee before it gets cold. Stare out the window. I’ve rearranged my living room so that I can write where there’s the most light. Watch the squirrels in the trees.
We start this issue with trees, we end with trees. And in the cycle, we look, look, look. As always, we have an eclectic collection, but all of them are about looking. A great deal are ekphrases.
Here is how you start over: look hard, look soft, make it up as you go along. Cross your fingers. Sing to it.
Best,
Nadia Arioli
