Editor's Letter June-July 2012
This summer A&I will publish three magazines loosely based on two themes: imagination and resilience. These are big, broad themes that touch us all. From my perspective the ideas of imagination and resilience come with a question: How do we as individuals and a community imagine and create new things, and how do we respond to shock?
This summer we won't so much try to answer these questions as we will share the evidence of imagination and resilience found here. This evidence is in each of us: In the life of a ninety-year-old. In the loss of a loved one. In an innovative response to the cost of fossil fuel. In imagining geologic time and glaciers. And, of course in imagination made evident in full through the arts.
The reason behind these themes is straightforward. Imagination is essential. It’s on par with knowledge, food, clothing, money. It carries us to the moon, to ancient China, to cures for cancer. With it we make simple, tasty meals. Most of all, imagination carries us beyond limits, and in limiting times that’s important.
This fits perfectly in these pages. The arts work hand in hand with our community’s health. They strengthen our imagination, so we might better overcome the collapse of the housing market or another spike in the price of oil, the cost and practice of healthcare. Imagination gives us bounce, relieves stress in reflection and in the act of creation. A&I won’t fix things, but by surfacing and celebrating our imagination and resilience as a community we hope to help us imagine. So, these are big, broad themes that touch us all.
In this issue, Trudy Taylor shares her infinitely curious self. Sarah Das talks about the Laurentide and Greenland ice sheets. Sam Feldman, Sandy Broyard and others discuss grief and recovery from the loss of loved ones. We also look at the prospects for solar energy and the potential to generate our own renewable energy. We even draw on a national author to share his ideas on imagination and how creativity works.
Perhaps most important and relevant, imagination and resilience are essential aspects of island life. They take on particular social value and meaning here in people’s make do, bring forth, create and recreate a life approach. Life on the margin does that. And, whether people are wealthy or struggling on this island living here is creative; it points to possibilities, to bounce and imagination. Here’s an opportunity to celebrate that, all summer.
