Orion March / April 2013

OUR WANT of full development for our children. This line, from William Giraldi’s “Splendid Visions” (on page 18 in this issue of Orion), rings true for so many of us, parents and nonparents alike. We want to give our children the best, and our culture is full of the evidence of the lengths — sometimes outlandish — to which people will go to help, inspire, and entertain their children. It is ironic, then, that the American education system comes up so short in acting in our children’s best interests. The statistics tell the story: Internationally, U.S. students rank forty-eighth on science tests. Canadian fifteen-year-olds test a full year ahead of their American counterparts in math. Only a third of eighth graders test as “proficient” in math, science, and reading. High…

Robert Cording teaches at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He is the author of six collections of poems, including, most recently, Walking with Ruskin. Mark Dorf is a 2011 graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. His images in this issue are from a series titled Axiom & Simulation. Gary Gildner is a winner of the National Magazine Award in fiction. Cleaning a Rainbow is his latest collection of poems. William Giraldi is the author of the novel Busy Monsters and fiction editor of the journal AGNI. His work has appeared recently in GQ, Salmagundi, and The Oxford American. Bear Guerra was a finalist for a 2010 National Magazine Award in photojournalism. His story in this issue was funded in part by the Society of Environmental…

The November/December 2012 issue of Orion should be required reading for every American. From Charles C. Mann’s “State of the Species” to Glenis Redmond’s “What Hangs on Trees,” Orion’s writers, artists, and editors have assembled a challenging and provocative text for this post-election/post-holiday period of hope-laced optimism and debt-induced doubt. So while I doubt all 300-odd million of us will read the November/December 2012 issue, it is still encouraging to know that we live among writers, thinkers, and artists who have the nerve to act as if we might. BILL DISKIN Charlotte, North Carolina Charles C. Mann’s “State of the Species” (November/December 2012) is one of the best assessments of human evolution I’ve ever read. And I agree with Lynn Margulis’s argument that the mere idea of balance is not…

OVER THE YEARS, bees, butterflies, birds, and bears have all appeared on the cover of Orion. There have also been images of a cowboy saloon, a mountain being blown up with dynamite, sea gulls eating French fries, and B83 nuclear gravity bombs. Vote for your favorite by participating in our first-ever Best Orion Cover poll at www.orionmagazine.org/covers. Five participants will win a free set of Orion postcards. The 2013 Orion Book Award selection committee is currently reading their way through a stack of great books in order to pick this year’s winner. The committee is comprised of Erik Reece, Ursula Le Guin, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jessa Crispin, and Orion’s associate editor, Hannah Fries. Throughout the month of March, the third annual Berkshire Festival of Women Writers takes place in Orion’s…

1. THE UNITED NATIONS MEDITATION STONE Conspiracy theorists, glimpsing the dark side of the New World Order, call it “Satan’s Altar.” But Dag Hammarskjold — Secretary-General from 1953 until that unresolved Congo plane crash eight years later — envisioned stillness in the eye of the storm, a space of peace to turn the mind inward. Enter via the Visitors’ Entrance, turn right at Information, step into the Meditation Room. There, lit by a single spotlight, stands a six-and-a-half-ton block of iron ore. “The iron ore has the weight and solidity of the everlasting,” said Hammarskjold. “How are we to use it?” 2. THE BLACK STONE One way to use stone can be glimpsed in the ritual of the hajj. There is the Kaaba, the immense granite cuboid, the first house…

Jacqueline Cameron Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada IN THE BEGINNING, 0°C feels cold, and ?10 feels really cold. Mice migrate into the house, plastic goes up on the windows. As time passes, the temperature drops into the ?30s and stays there for more than a week. The car won’t start. Thirty minutes from Whitehorse, along Mayo Road, it’s in the ?40s. That’s really cold. Then it warms to ?25, which feels pretty good, except for the north wind, which is cold and sharp on your face. Dress warm: wear the winter boots, the parka, the long underwear, and the mittens — even if you think the bus will be on time. Tug your scarf up over your nose. Pull your fingers into a warming fist. When the sun shines, the bright, frosted…