This February, ITF explores what life is like on the other side of normal — what happens when everyday assumptions and habits are ripped away. Though sometimes frightening and often involuntary, change can also lead to transcendence, as it does in this month’s issue.

We start by Taking Flight when Kekla Magoon explores the virtues of fleeing a bad situation by remembering her own decision to step off the path to medical school. Next, in a short story by CS Perryess, The best of it, a young girl escapes the dispiriting world of homelessness by creating her own imaginary home out of the chaos.

In A long walk to work, photojournalist Dustin Ross depicts a  surprisingly cheery New York in the midst of the transit strike. And in Slamming it, Erin Marie Daly documents the post-war Bosnian sitting volleyball team’s mercurial rise to national standings.

Finally, in Sunday masses, local sports pride reaches a bloody but exhilarating extreme when Ulysses de la Torre attends a soccer match in Argentina. Later this month, and across the pond, Courtney Traub observes France grappling with its colonial past. Amidst the remnants of racism, the nation shows some signs of rising to the occasion.

Our column this month, alas, is not about transcendence, but about its opposite: having feet of clay. Former Newsday reporter Valerie Burgher, in The anti-pleasure principle, reminds us of the cardinal sins and how some of our most outspoken moralists have fallen afoul of the straight and narrow without learning any lessons.

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore

ALSO: InTheFray needs your input! Later this spring we will begin publishing a department devoted to interviews with activists. We’re looking to showcase a diverse array of activists and activism, broadly defined.

If you know of anyone who you think would be a worthy interview subject, please email us at activists-at-inthefray-dot-org with the person’s name, a couple sentences about the person and why you think s/he’d be such an interesting interview subject, and, if possible, how to get in touch with the person. Thanks for your help!

Nicole Leistikow