Letter from the President

Dear ISSRNC colleagues and friends.

Spring has arrived here in the northern hemisphere – winging in like the Hindenburg, filled with paradox instead of hydrogen. The paradox has appeared, most recently, disguised as returning Sandhill Cranes. Once nearly eliminated from the eastern US, they’re back in growing numbers, cackling and whooping across the Milwaukee River from my study. The paradox feels stark: a noisy, resurgent, and now flourishing species competing with the noise of a human pandemic. Their calls bump up against our isolation, and remind us of the need we have for one another, for compassion, for friendship. But right now, people in the US seem to be masking their anxiety, by turns, with despair and good cheer – and, apparently, by hoarding toilet tissue.

I suppose there’s even more bitter sweetness attached to the fact that while Spring is returning to the northern hemisphere, Autumn is (and I have to imagine, gratefully) being welcomed in the south. Our ISSRNC colleagues in Australia had an especially difficult summer with blistering temperatures and unrelenting fires.

For all that, the Sandhill cranes have returned, following their natural migration route.

We should do the same.

And so: the ISSRNC board met this week to initiate the planning process for our next conference, scheduled for early February 2021 at Arizona State University.  You can follow updates with the Twitter hashtag: #issrnc2021

The Call For Papers is now being circulated. You can find a copy on the ISSRNC website, Twitter feed, and Facebook page.

Please forward the CFP out along all of your social media outlets.

I’d like to find the right thing to say to help us all navigate the next few months. My 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Berg, always said “When you don’t know how to say something, say it in a poem.”

[in Just-]

By E.E. Cummings

in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and             wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s
Spring
and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles
far
and
wee

I am reminded in this context that the one of the deities relevant to our disciplines is Pan who <spoiler alert> makes a cameo in the final verse. Pan is, of course, responsible for both wild nature and panic. This bivalence seems appropriate, especially, to Spring 2020.

On behalf of the ISSRNC Board, my very best wishes.

Mark