Volume 2017 (2017)

Editor Notes

FORCES 2017 reflects a time of change, one of those periods when the earth seems to tilt awkwardly on its axis – as it does from time to time. Thus, we are challenged to see if we are all thrown into some off-balanced, disastrous wobble, or conversely, to see if it’s time for thoughtful assessment and to methodically catch our balance. It’s almost as if Atlas, having taken his discomfort as long as possible, set down the earth for a moment to scratch his nose; we must look at our world anew when it is shaken; we must rise to meet the challenge, even if we didn’t or did necessarily want it. Consider how, in this issue, cancer brings two estranged sisters back together rather than destroying their relationship, how an African American daughter embraces being a seventh-generation female acknowledging the drastic changes over those generations and that that is what makes her her, a breakup that leads a woman not to depression but to empowerment, a loss of a love that leads one to cherish memories taken for granted rather than drown in her suffering, a woman empowered by her final conscious choice to break from expected feminine stereotypes and to finally embrace herself, or a church congregation able to forgive a church shooter, even when the law cannot – these are not the responses expected to those “wobbly moments” at all, at all, at all. FORCES 2017 is an uplifting issue celebrating the moments of our lives that define us – in spite of ourselves – as human and humane.

Thank you to Dr. H. Neil Matkin, Collin College district president; the Board of Trustees and Dr. Donald Weasenforth, dean of academic affairs who continue to support FORCES.

Special thanks to the student editors, Marlene Miller, Donna Kinder, Heather Darrow and the Public Relations Department.