Clear as Mud

April 22 is Earth Day. Billions of dollars have been spent by the corporate world over the decades to program us to believe that living in a disposable world is convenient. If you think about the purchases you have made over the years, you might realize that you’ve made many companies rich by purchasing trash over, and over, and over again without a second thought. It’s time to rethink for ourselves.

by Eva van Loon

Spring’s a season of thanks as well as getting down in the dirt for the biz of
growing fresh crops. At Immanence we want to thank our enthusiastic readers, downloaders and contributors for helping us through the magazine’s first winter. It isn’t easy for small mags to stay in the black dirt of solvency, but with community response and a lot of volunteerism, we made it, and are happy to announce that not only has Immanence recently given birth to a litter of fresh ideas but it is now very close to owning its own printer to act as nanny for those frisky new notions. If all goes well, our May issue will announce the return of locally printed independent media to Powell  River.

It has come to our attention (again) that some of our fellow citizens believe Immanence takes  positions. Some folks believe the magazine is anti-mill, or anti-this-or-that.

The idea of Immanence in our community might be, as people used to say, as clear as mud.

Let’s get a grip: if our mill quit operating, it would be a disaster for everyone in Powell River, not to mention the end of a happy era. Who wants that? Nobody.

Immanence is not about throwing rocks, slinging mud, investigative reporting, or taking sides.  Immanence has one policy only: open source. You write it; we’ll print it, as long as it isn’t  libellous, pornographic, vulgar, or downright wrong. Oh, yes—the Grammar Gremlin hangs out here and insists on making copy as good as it can be, which means free editing service for you, dear reader and (hopefully) contributor.

Think of Immanence as one of our treasured creeks, with their clear, purling waters, the overarching forest, the salmon valiantly returning home, the water-loving plants and variegated stones. These streams indeed “pervade and sustain our universe”—what would this land be  without them?

As streams speak for the soul of the forests, so Immanence offers to voice the soul of the community. Speak up!

Creeks are impaired and even ruined for all species by running machinery through them, dumping garbage or unsuitable soil into them, or causing erosion by cutting too close to their ecosystems.
Similarly, a magazine designed as an organ of articulation for the community can be starved by obduracy, wounded by misconceptions, strangled by narrow concerns.

Humanity has not, so far, proven itself the wisest species on the planet. By all accounts, our kind, and all others on account of us, are in the greatest crisis of our existence. Was there ever a time when we needed a voice more? When we needed the courage to speak our inmost beliefs and  dreams?

The open-source policy means a space for everyone and anyone to try out ideas safely. It means freedom from politicising. It means freedom to speak without fear of retribution. It means connection, collaboration, cohesion, communion. Think of how water flows into itself, and out again, clear molecule by molecule.

Immanence is a throat to speak what is inherent and indwelling in you. Keep our waters clear of
mud, so that we can manifest the part of you that pervades and sustains the universe.