EDITORIAL
Many Voices from the SOul

Within days after my sister Angela Joy King died on April 29, 2001, it seemed to me that one key way to honor her and what she stood for would be in the pages of DreamSeeker Magazine. However, to ensure that I and my family had ample time to journey in private, I also promised myself that any such material would not be released until at least a year after her death.

Now that year has passed, and indeed the time has come to honor Angela. Obviously, then, the underlying inspiration for much of this issue of DSM is intensely personal.

Often this is explicit, as in my own reproduction, in my Kingsview column, of the memories of Angela I shared at her memorial service, as well as in the decision to publish excerpts from Angela’s own writing, gathered with the help of Angela’s and my sister Nöel. In her article on mental illness, author Joan K. King, my wife, also explicitly points to ways both knowing and losing Angela heightened her awareness of the issues faced by those who are mentally all.

But I am also moved by how many other writings in this issue seem to fit with remembering Angela, even as they take whatever unique paths their authors, usually entirely unaware of Angela, chose to send them. Dave Greiser, for instance, submitted his fine review of “A Beautiful Mind,” and its redemptive treatment of mental illness, with no awareness that Angela’s journey would be highlighted in the same issue. Ted Grimsrud’s memories of “good ancestors” resonate also as I remember a sister who is in a sense now one of the ancestors who has gone before.

Meanwhile, although the topics might seem distant from mental illness, I see connections between Angela and articles by atheist Alan Soffin and agnostic Herb Simons on whether God can speak to humans; by C. Norman Kraus regarding his journey from youthful to mature appreciation of the Bible; by Kent Davis Sensenig, Roy Brubaker, and Dave Hockman-Wert on sustainable agriculture; and by Dan Hertzler on valuing peace in time of war. Each article in some way speaks for someone or something—even the Earth itself—too often marginalized in the polite societal circles someone like Angela so often found so unable to give her the space to think and feel as she did.

Finally, there seem to be reminders of how variously and richly we each speak, and how much we must learn to honor each other in all our diverse and wild grandeur, in the lyrical poetry of Cheryl Denise as well as in placing at beginning and end of this issue articles by Valerie Weaver-Zercher and Julie Gochenour. Valerie helps us see the limits of the journey motif and the value of Homecoming even as Julie takes us on an “Easter Walk” with many steps. —Michael A. King