April 2005 | From the Editor
In a twinkling
by Bob Condor
When Marc Ian Barasch agreed to write this issue’s cover story about compassion, I recalled a long conversation we had one day during a promotional tour for his remarkable previous book, “Healing Dreams.” We gabbed for an additional half-hour after completing a lengthy interview and didn’t seem to be running out of topics or things to say.
We talked about writing and writers. We talked about living in Boulder (I was jealous) and he asked me about working at the New York Daily News in the 1980s (never dull).
Come to think of it, we talked about compassion, too, that it seemed in shorter supply. Marc’s creative flow was already streaming on the subject.
I knew in my heart I was heading west someday, yet didn’t quite dare to think I would actually be settled in a place like Seattle before Marc’s next book. But here I am (grateful, through and through) and here comes Marc’s next book, this one published by Rodale. It’s called “Field Notes on the Compassionate Life:A Search for the Soul of Kindness.”
Marc’s piece in EM this month is an original essay about searching for that compassionate life and what he found. His journey was rich with stories (his forte). Like Paul Loeb, the Seattle-based writer and editor who recently published “The Impossible Will Take a Little While”, his words inspire the rest of us with renewed hope.
In the book itself, Marc talks about “escapees” or people who have “broken free of self-centerness and lit out for the territory of compassion.” He suggests we’ve all met the escapees, people who seem to emit a steady stream of love-vibes and make you feel embraced and accepted for who you are.
Take a moment. Think about those people in your life.
“If feels so good to be around them,” writes Marc. “They stand there, radiating photons of goodwill and, despite yourself, you beam back. The world, in a twinkling, changes.”
One invaluable feature of Marc’s book is a notes section that points to all sorts of insightful references in books, magazines, newspapers and other sources. An accompanying bibliography is equally tantalizing.
Marc will be appearing in Seattle Fri 22/Sat 23: at Seattle First Baptist Church (206-624-6600) and Third Place Books (206-366-3316).
Kudos for Our EM Columnist
The honors keep stacking up for our columnist, Silja J.A. Talvi. Her story about the impact of three strikes sentencing on African-American men in Washington for ColorsNW Magazine was just named one of only three PASS Award winners for magazine writing. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency sponsored the awards; PASS stands for Prevention for a Safer Society. The other two winning stories appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine and New York Times Magazine.
Impressive company, Silja.
“I spent time with three amazing guys behind bars in the Monroe prison who are serving out life sentences for relatively minor and mostly non-violent felonies,” says Silja. “Pending legislation in Olympia right now would fix the more extreme portions of three strikes and give these guys a shot at freedom at some point in their lives.
“Having said that, I’ll go on the record as saying this kind of legislation was a politically convenient but (fiscally and socially) irresponsible idea to begin with. The toll in many lower-income African American communities has been just tremendous and terrible to witness, including here in Washington.”
Bob Condor is the editor of Evergreen Monthly
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