Dear Reader,
Sometimes, we must live with the undone. No matter how much you struggle, your neighbors do not help you. Or a lover leaves for elsewhere, no matter your pleading against them. Or you think on the mystery of losing someone, only for them to vanish right as you grasp the question which outlines them: what should I do?
This question knifes its way through a crisp day, the spray of the ocean, or while wading in moonbeams. We expect somehow a small triumph. Look how I am patient, we say to fate, or the stars, or the friend who won’t understand. Enduring the trouble implies a coming achievement.
But the greater gift is to have strength to trust the chaos. No matter what precepts, the end must be outlined by its path. This observation was an undercurrent to this volume. This volume deals with hardship. It deals with thinking. It deals with the trials conferred to the still observer. Whether discussing coal company police or musing on public health difficulties, it is normal to wrestle the difficult things. I mean this to speak of writing and art, as the writing and art in this volume shows its twisting and growth and labor. The graceful triumph results from something raw. How are we to suspect otherwise?
Because the most benighted and despised will regardless show their beauty. The shy, a rare frankness; the quotidian, a different view; and the composed, a pleasure unbeknownst when taken apart. This, I believe, embodies the volume and aligns wholly with the journal. We edify this: patience will understand what is at first unseen.
Forbes & Fifth rewards those who look hard to ignore borders. Thinking widely offers the gift of grasping something unfamiliar through the familiar. In this, there is less failure and more waiting; fewer trials and more observing.
With this, I invite you to read on. Enjoy what’s in store.
Happy reading,
Lucas Grasha