It’s an imperfect world, and we just live in it. But there is imperfect and imperfect. Perfection, as I never tire of saying, is the enemy of the Good—the end of all life, of all change. The Good is life changing for the betterment of all, and when I say ‘all’, I mean the entire ecosystem.
So when you read this issue, and you come across some pieces that may not be as polished as you might like, consider this: out of imperfection comes change. That said, you might want to have a look at Blake Chapman’s State of the Country. And Nick LeGrand’s Meteorites.
Of course, we have, as usual, a great many contributions where the investigation of how to achieve the Good is presented in beautiful form, especially in this time of covid. Our poets specialize in that. Sean Murphy, for example, with his As the Obituary Section Gets Bigger. DS Maolalai’s the street stretches (love that warm beer). Our wonderful poetry editor, Marissa Bell Toffoli with Primer.
Chris Farago blew us away again this issue, with ; and Fermata. And Marissa and I each picked a different David Selzer poem, so we ended up with both: A Sentimental Education and The Price of Fish and the Value of Nothing.
For an almost perfect discussion of moral agency, EAP’s resident philosopher Bruce E.R. Thompson weighs in with The Arc of the Moral Universe: A Sermon.
For an almost perfect description of the sane life, Charlotte McGuinn Freeman and Garden Ethic.
Then there’s me, with another chapter from “My Life with Dogs,” this one about the imperfection of a parental world order and what unexpected joys can come of that: Elsa.
Welcome back.