Our one-hundred-and-ninth issue is something of an anomaly, as it contains much loss and destruction—of the environment, of others, of the self. Yet as the nettle’s sting is soothed by the jewelweed that grows alongside it, each piece holds some key ingredient that makes its burdens easier to bear: beauty, laughter, resilience.
There are so many things to worry about right now, and trying to keep up with what we need to do, to think, and to feel threatens to overwhelm us at every moment. We hope the words of James Donlon, Robert Garnham, K. Noel Moore, Nick Olson, Namit V. Shah, and Ali A. Ünal, as well as the art of Angelica Gonzalez, will provide an antidote to despair.
Welp, when lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, we weren’t trying to smell them through DIY-bandana face masks while maintaining twelve-foot-diameter personal space bubbles. This shit got hella real and then proceeded to fling itself into our collective fan.
Order some takeout and put on your comfiest jammies, ’cause our