Just in time for the beginning of a new school year, this issue of ITF explores the unanswerable contradictions of living. Remember when two plus two equaled four? Those were the days.

Those were the days before you moved away and developed your own tastes, your own convictions. Before there came a time when returning home involved a complex analysis of yourself, your roots, and your mom’s lawn ornaments. Before ITF Literary Editor Michelle Caswell’s personal essay, Love without grammar.

It was time before anyone smacked a label on your forehead saying you were this or that and had to stay that way forever. Before anyone defined you for himself and insisted that you accept his definition. Before Daphne Rhea’s two poems exploring the limits and possibilities of sexual identity.

Those were the days when it still seemed like there were simple solutions, if only people would wake up. Now, even if people do, it’s not clear it will be in time, as Michael Standaert’s review of  Bjørn Lomborg’s book, How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place, concludes. Even with $50 billion, it’s not clear exactly where to start.

Those were the days when soccer was enough to bring everyone together. But wait, it still is, as Alexandra Copley shows in her piece on the cult of the beautiful game in Brazil. As the world grows more complex, some things still add up.

Nicole Leistikow
Managing Editor
Baltimore

Nicole Leistikow