Peace counters culture.You have to show up.Everything is required of you.Stress spills; anxiety looms. Don’t pause.Rest is only earnedAfter every task is completed.Your worth lies in constant motion. Rest later.You aren’t doing enough.Keep going. You have to be perfect.The weight of striving suffocates. But amid the dissonance is a steady whisperThat stills storms within, while […]
Dignity Across Ages: Finding Unity in Generational Difference
A World of Generational Divide How is your generation defined? Are you an “iPad kid”? A “screenager”? Are you considered lazy and entitled? Overlooked? Out of touch with reality? These labels, placed on different generations in America, speak to more than how a generation is perceived; they reveal our unique cultural moment, one where each […]
Peace-Driven Infrastructure: Third Places Worth Building
In the broadway hit, Newsies, 17 year old Jack Kelly famously sings of his desire to escape from New York City and his urban troubles. The collapsing blue collar unions and the failure to boycott New York’s elite create Kelly’s ballad, Santa Fe, where he longs to escape to New Mexico to start a new […]
Adrift
I’ve been adrift for days now— floatingbetween the taunting sun and thetantalizing bright blue sea, trappedin a mobile prison of rubber. I send a plea of rain only to receivedrops like hundreds of arrows ambushing me.I have no refuge from the weeping cloudsabove. Droplets, bitter and icy, hit my skin. My salty tears blend with […]
You are What You Hear: Healing Broken Self-Image Through Music
A piano is, in essence, a giant brush, and the black and white keys are a palette of vibrant colors. It is where I can freely let out my emotions and lose myself in a world of my creation. One moment, I am lying on a blanket beneath the setting Appalachian sun hearing the playful […]
Letter From The Editor, Issue XVI – “Peace in Our Time”
Dear Reader, It requires little evidence to prove that the world we live in desperately needs peace. Our news is filled with reminders of war and tragedy, and statistics report a rapidly growing mental health crisis. In an increasingly globalized and broadcasted world, unrest is prevalent and unavoidable. In response to this lack of peace, […]