A few days ago, I asked friends if they, like myself, ever feel the summertime blues. Truly, I love summer: the long days, the sunshine and flowers and vegetable gardens and long walks with short dogs (I have two mini-dachshunds, by the way); but I have always struggled a little, too, usually around this time every year. I’m not sure exactly why. Perhaps it is because, more than any other season, summer days seem to illustrate how time is slipping away, ever faster. Each four o’clock, five o’clock, ten o’clock is a reminder that we are one day closer to the start of fall semester (for example) or cooler temperatures or the loss of the vibrant greenery. Summer marches, and I suppose maybe I sometimes feel pulled unwillingly along.
In this, our summer issue, we have some beautiful work for you to read in your porch swing or beach chair, while trying to hold back July and push August away for a little longer. We are particularly excited about a feature we are presenting this issue, focusing on a group of extraordinary young people who are showcasing work they’d done in a class—taught by the also extraordinary Ann Pancake—that examines the complex relationship many have with Appalachia. There is both love and grief in their writing, and in these pages.
Finally, as we end June 2022, we must acknowledge that this has been a difficult news month for many of us, as the Supreme Court of the Unites States has voted to overturn Roe vs Wade, which strikes a devastating blow to the rights and freedoms of everyone. The editors of Change Seven strongly stand with those people who have uteruses and support the right to body autonomy. I wish I could say something more, and more eloquently, but, right now, this is all I can offer.
I will end with some words from Dorothy Parker, the badass woman for whom Change Seven is named: “Women and elephants never forget.”
~Natalie Sypolt, July 2022
Change Seven Magazine 