Turn & Return – Letter from the Editor
On the way out of the centre of Amsterdam on one of the city’s oldest canals, the Singel, boats pass a public art installation featuring large terrazzo letters set into the wall which read terugkomen is niet hetzelfde als blijven—“to return is not the same as to stay.” It’s a quotation from a letter by the eighteenth-century Dutch writer Belle van Zuylen, and I wonder if she would see it as a warning or a promise to travelers. To me, van Zuylen’s observation underscores the way that change happens on both sides. Blijven has the sense of remaining, continuing, life moving on with the steady lap of water on the sides of the canal. Whether you are the one who returns or stays, neither you nor the city will be the same tomorrow.
Returning home is a fundamental theme of our culture’s stories, from myths like The Odyssey to the parable of the Prodigal Son. One of the beauties of biblical stories of return in particular is that home is anchored in the immutability of God. Even though their city was destroyed, the Hebrew exiles in Babylon held onto hope that they could return home because God remained; even though his travels ruined him, the prodigal held onto hope that he could return home because his father’s love had not changed. When Jesus declared to the woman at the well that the worship of God was no longer tied to a specific mountain or temple, he transformed the Hebrew imperative to return to the Promised Land into a call to find God’s presence in the community of faith: “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I.” Home is where his heart is.
In this issue of Imprint we invited writers and artists to explore how our lives are formed by experiences of change and choice, the familiar and the new. We asked how one thing turns into another: when friends turn to lovers (or enemies), water to ice, iron and carbon to steel, in every instance this “turning” is complex and fascinating. We also asked about what keeps us who we are as people, communities, and cities. Social scientists tell us that we are living through the fastest period of change in human history. How can returning to an ancient faith anchor us, or help us turn to a better future? The pieces in this issue represent three overlapping forms of response to the matter of turning and returning. Kan Cheung, Michele C., and Linda Sadlowski recount experiences of change on a very personal level, detailed and human; Jeff Hynds, Elita Fung, Kaye Ann Caronongan, Lesley-Jane Deboer, Dorothy Leung, and David Cade use art to show us the effort of turning through imagery, food, light, and fantasy; and Mike Janzen, Tammy Storey, Jen McNaughton, and John Sampson consider different roads of returning in faith.
It's a privilege to work with this dedicated editorial team, who put in careful hours and late evenings to make this issue what it is. Special thanks to our advance readers for their thoughtful critique and encouragement to contributors in the early stages of writing, and to the folks at Grace Toronto Church for their practical support in getting this issue to print. Finally, heartfelt appreciation to our subscribers on Patreon, who believe in the mission of Imprint enough to make it possible.
– Joel