Foreword
Like we’ve never experienced, the feelings of confinement the year 2020 has caused and the abrupt changes it has brought with it are unprecedented. Yet, paradoxically, it has created a much-needed space and compelled us to make use of this space for long over-due re-evaluations of our actions and beliefs as humans. Regardless of the disruptions across board caused by the pandemic, we are delighted with the irruption of imagination at this present moment. Now in its fifth year, Lunaris Review remains unwavering in its commitment to curating creativity and the narratives that advance us as a progressive species integral to planetary evolution.
Steeped in emotions of loss and love, grief and happiness, hope and despair, pain and healing, confessions and conflictions, in no particular order like life itself, the narratives in this Issue 12 take one gently through the panic and pain that have engulfed much of everything as it used to be; they highlight how defamiliarized our realities now are and how unsuspicious we can be of the futures or circumstances that can upend the plots of our existence till we learn to navigate or get distracted from our “new-found reality.” As Pamilerin Jacob reminds us, “This world [is] a fractured shin/ unable to bear its own weight.”
The pandemic and the thrusts of the narratives in this issue reveal the susceptibility of humanism, humanity and humanness, reminding us that we are nothing but—and not beyond—humans, if not fallen short of it. We are neither supreme nor the centrality of all consciousness. Put simply, we are just another manifestation of the cosmos, and should learn to treat others equal and fairly so, for to love and to be loved remains vital to our collective existence.
Therefore, while we are learning to put the fragments of these moments together, let’s stay safe and care for others!
Tolulope Oke,
Publisher
