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Disciplines for Freedom
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The Open Road
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We Are All Fiddlers on the Roof
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Bad Faith or Perfect Freedom
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American Freedom and Christian Freedom
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Jane Eyre Holds Her Own
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Becoming a Free Person
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In Defiance of All Powers
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Recovering from Heroin and Fiction
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The Workers and the Church
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The Body She Had
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Encounters at the Southern Border
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A Lion in Phnom Penh
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Become Slaves to One Another
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Form and Freedom
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Paraguayans Don’t Read
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The Bible’s Story of Freedom
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The Autonomy Trap
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An Exodus From China
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Yearning for Freedom
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Taking Lifelong Vows
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Poem: “And Is It Not Enough?”
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An American Mother Forgives
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I Cheerfully Refuse Despair
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The Glory of God Is a Human Being Fully Alive
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Arvo Pärt’s Journey
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Readers Respond
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The Forgiveness Project
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Humanizing Medicine
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The Busted Bean
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Jakob Hutter, Radical Reformer
Covering the Cover: Freedom
The concept of freedom can be depicted many ways.
By Rosalind Stevenson
September 14, 2024
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Birds, boats, broken chains … freedom brings to mind many visual metaphors. But freedom has its perils as well as its beauty, and we wanted to represent that complexity in this issue’s cover art.
When we narrowed down our design ideas, we were left with four options: A lone albatross winging across the ocean – a picture of the freedom of flight, set within the natural laws of migration, weather patterns, and the search for food. A small group of people (and a dog) in a rowboat in the air, alluding to the ideas of boundless choices: of community, of destinations, and of work to be done. A flock of birds flying over a cityscape – freedom to rise above the daily grind, even if only in our minds; freedom to dream lofty dreams while staying grounded in reality; finding a flock to share in this freedom. And finally, a bird stenciled graffiti-style onto a gritty background – freedom to transform our surroundings; freedom to find or create beauty wherever we are.
Julio Larraz, Exodo, oil on canvas, 2022. Used by permission of The Julio Larraz Foundation.
Once again, our readers came through with some insightful comments. Here are a few:
“The albatross has an element of freedom TO act, not just freedom FROM constraints – the inherent responsibility and necessity to move forward with self-control – but not without delight.”
“FLOCK OF BIRDS – Purely compositionally, it’s the most impressive photograph, which all but lifts the viewer out of their perspective and up into the sky. Glorious.”
“Rowboat: loving the Magritte vibe, even if it’s slightly off brand for Plough’s aesthetic.”
“The #1 is beautiful, but I voted #4. The reason is seeing that bird painted over the graffiti. It immediately evokes the dilemma of freedom. Is it used to create beauty or to destroy?”
“It’s got to be the rowboat, the only image of the bunch that evokes an important dimension of freedom: imagination.”
Despite the Albatross taking the vote, we opted for the Rowboat in the end, because as this reader commented: “I liked the rowboat because the people and the dog emphasize that freedom comes through community not isolation from others – we’re altogether in the same boat, floating beyond a dual colored background oars at the ready, implying choice, free will, as well as good and evil.” The characters in Cuban artist Julio Larraz’s imaginative painting Exodo experience both sides of freedom; the open sky offers countless sights and opportunities, but without setting boundaries or committing to one destination it’s possible to drift forever and never arrive.
Look out for more artwork from Julio Larraz in Peter Mommsen’s editorial.
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Valoree Dowell
The Autumn 2024 cover— Exodo—a painting by artist Julio Larraz, stopped me in my tracks, even before I noted the title of the issue, or read any of its content. I had a visceral response to the picture, an airborne rowboat with perhaps two humans and one very visible dog. The oars reach out from starboard and port sides of the boat, shedding their oaken weight and embracing the silken air with agile wings. Beauty of the art aside for a moment, the reason I was so struck is that it captured a tale flooding back from my sons’ childhood. I read to them all the time. But this story was not in one of their books. It came to me one night, sitting on the floor in the dark, near the touching headboards of their beds. I imagined — and began to describe to them — a scene unfolding there in the warm cozy bedtime. They were driving in a car together, a wooly scarf tied around each neck, billowing in the wind, instead of under the dinosaur quilts that prepared them for sleep. The car was a convertible, you see. The better to experience the surrounding countryside through which they were zooming. It was still light, and they were driving toward the sunset, with blue sky above, red sky beginning to glow deep on the horizon. The road was a little hilly, a little twisty, as it edged along the river. Challenges to navigate for two boys beginning to taste the first fruits of freedom. Then a change. The car began to slide, slip really, toward the river. Being wise and practical, Henry, older and driving, downshifted. Liam, younger and nimble, popped the lever that opened the doors. In a wink, the doors spread wide and pivoted. Liam secured the latches. Henry hit the throttle. And up, up, up over the river the car, now plane, lifted. The engine was calmed. The wind still tossed their scarves, but the sky was full of quiet. A soothing adventure story to ease two young boys to sleep. At seven and five, they had not much need to escape home to find freedom, as foretold in Exodo. But imagination is a value and a virtue to cultivate for whatever our futures, and todays, may hold.