Move Us Toward the Light
A special July 4, 2025, gift assortment for all subscribers
Hello Loreates,
This is the bleakest Independence Day in my memory, and the contrast with the cheer and optimism of last year’s 4th makes it even grimmer. But it’s not as if we haven’t been felled before, as if we haven’t all had to talk— or write— ourselves into getting up again throughout our lives. Especially since these 21st century demons started snarling out of the darkness, we must always remember: we still own the light of our own decisions, our actions, and our words. And we do know how to protect that light and lean into it.
With that in mind, I’ve gone back through the MFA Lore archives to select some of the many essays here that focus on the light we all need to remember and rekindle right now. As my Independence Day gift to you, I’ve removed their paywalls and assembled them here. I hope you find them both inspiring and consoling.
You are not alone. You are not powerless. Your voice matters. Raise it!
Stay safe and true—and independent.
And, always, write on,
Aimee
A Fighting Chance With the Chaos of Living
Often the path into good writing leads directly through territory that, if not for this urge to re-tell the traumatic, we would leave behind in the space somewhere between memory and forgetting.
A Reliable Pocket of Hope
How can we imagine that things can be different in conditions that aren’t only intense, but are actually trying to eliminate hope for change?
A wonderful gift. Thank you for assembling these essays, will look forward to reading them. I know it’s a sobering holiday this year, but we’ve still got the light as you say, the independence (many of us) to find a way forward to keep fighting.