Editorial: Shoots from the Stump

Mostly to my surprise, because I wasn’t thinking in this direction until recently, this Winter 2011 issue of DreamSeeker Magazine forces me to reflect on endings and beginnings, on stumps and shoots. This is because this is the last issue to be published in a paper version. The online version may long continue; that will be determined by whether columns and articles continue to come in and the labor of love continues to have payoffs beyond the financial ones—of which there are less than zero!

Multiple factors have contributed to this decision, including the reality that DSM faces all the same challenges that have caused other periodicals to convert to online-only versions plus the fact that for its ten years DSM has always been published knowingly at a loss. Another factor has been my taking on the deanship of Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS). My original vision was to pay another editor entirely to replace me, but I concluded that for Cascadia Publishing House LLC, through which DSM is released, to take an even greater loss was not viable.

However, skipping paper to go straight to publishing online also skips considerable work and expense. And working with a faithful cadre of fine columnists is the least time-consuming part of editing DSM. Thus I suspect it may be viable, if DSM’s columnists choose to remain active online, to continue to release their writing as the core of DSM while sometimes fleshing it out with other submissions.

I’m very pleased that my most recent effort to proactively invite author contributions led to Brenda Hartman-Souder’s readiness to write a new column, “Five Hours East.” But what an irony that it appears for the first time in this last paper issue of DSM. Nevertheless, I hope the treasures of Brenda’s writing and insights will continue to be nurtured in DSM online (which has always served the greater number of DSM readers).

I’d note that tomorrow I happen to be preaching on Isaiah 11 and the shoot that sprouts from the stump of Jesse. In my sermon, I’ll observe that like the redwoods whose ghostly stumps sprout majestic “fairy groves” or “cathedrals” of new shoots surrounding the stumps, life can sprout from destruction. And, as the sermon will put it,

This is a word we need to hear. Our culture mostly teaches us that life sprouts from life, that power sprouts from power, wealth from wealth, success from success. The biblical story overall, and the Isaiah imagery combined with the Jesus story sharply focuses this, offers us a different word. In Isaiah the shoot comes from the stump. In the Jesus story, life comes from being hurt, oppressed, mistreated, undone by failure or even, as in Jesus’ case, put to death.

As a good success-bent American, I’d rather speak of the glorious new future of DSM. But let me try to practice what I preach, and trust that turning the paper DSM into a stump gives those mysterious currents of divine energy the opportunity to nurture whatever new shoots might not otherwise emerge, whether from me, DSM online, or DSM readers.

I do want to express great gratitude to those of you, some thousand of you from what I can tell, who have faithfully sustained nearly a decade of paper DSM. And of course to the scores of you who have shown us, with laughter, tears, and passion, what writing as a “voice from the soul” can look like.

Thanks again for being part of the DreamSeeker Magazine journey. I’ll hope to continue to visit with you online. Happy shoot growing! 

P.S. This issue ran weeks later than expected. One sad reason was the death of my mother, which I write about in my column at the end of this issue, was followed by  my father Aaron’s declining health. DSM went often on hold as we moved him to comfort care in late December and finally grieved his passing on January 3, 2011 even as at a January 7 service we also elebrated his life, which I’ll say more about in months to come. —Michael A. King