Gina Malone, Editor
We writers can usually wax poetic on anything. We pride ourselves on, if not always knowing what to say, at least knowing what to write. It is as if a connection exists between thoughts and fingertips.
To preface this issue, however, I’m hard-pressed to know what to write or even how to feel. So much concentrated suffering in our Appalachian region, so many livelihoods lost, so much art and beauty and potential washed away, and we as a people are left in collective shock.
How do we recover? How do we pick ourselves up and go on? How do we have hope in the face of this much tragedy? Those were questions I asked myself in the days after Hurricane Helene rearranged and devastated our world. Watching people do that very thing—stand up and walk out to face what needed to be done—whether that was helping to feed one another, shoveling mud out of homes and businesses, organizing fundraisers or simply whatever they could—albeit in a much more labor-intensive way—to keep themselves and their loved ones safe and well. We all do what we can. We get up in the morning. We take one small step at a time, over and over again. We support and love one another. That’s how we recover. That’s how we go on. That is hope, and when it’s all you have, it’s enough.
“Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist,” author Eileen Miller writes. We’re all creative in this moment, whether we’re writing a poem or painting a picture in order to cope with overwhelming tragedy, or whether we’re reimagining a way forward or rebuilding a home or business.
This is a different issue, of course, than what he had planned for November. Sorrow, optimism, uncertainty, it’s all here. There’s much more to be said, of course, and we’re here for those who want to share stories of recovery, life and hope in this still beautiful part of the world where we live and work.
This was also a difficult issue. We at The Laurel are so grateful to those who stepped up to talk to devastated artists and witness acts of kindness in order to help fill these pages.
Stay well, stay in touch, and stay strong.
Gina Malone can be reached at gina@thelaurelofasheville.com
