Much like a person can eat fast food every day, so can their minds regularly consume content that offers a momentary pleasure yet leaves them feeling unsatisfied in the end. This must be why some call it the "media diet."
If you are a long-time reader, you may have noticed that things have been changing at Merion West. Given that we are some of the last people on this Earth to view change as inherently good by itself, we believe this to be a necessary step forward in the service of our mission. About a year ago during a team meeting, a newcomer asked what it is about MW that we love. His inquiry was understandable. Why have we continued to publish this magazine–including nearly two thousand articles–against our better financial (and occasionally, social) judgment for nearly a decade?
Although we did not plan around it, the reasons that emerged proved edifying. While no ethos can be reduced to a tagline, the spirit of our mission can be described as something like this:
Even if attention spans are getting shorter by the year and moral confusion reigns supreme, critical thinking and the truth still matter. Even though the media operates increasingly like a factory producing clicks and retweets, integrity in writing still matters.
Therefore, it is our hope that you will find this publication a welcome oasis apart from contemporary media, which serves increasingly more junk than substance. In other words, please accept our first of many attempts to serve you with a multi-course meal that will leave your mind elevated rather than confused, your spirits refreshed rather than cast down.
Over the better part of this year, we have prayed and debated, felt excited and discouraged, even suffered threats and made new friends. Therefore, we hope that you will enjoy this first Collection, which was made possible thanks to the labors of our talented writers and poets exploring timeless truths and witnessing beauty.
Returning to a night in Omaha that rattled the nation, Matthew Chabin provides a different perspective of his old friend in the middle of the tragedy. An intimate meditation on the fragility of friendship in a black-and-white age, Chabin calls for understanding over condemnation.
Would you let your sister or daughter date, and then marry, an inmate? In this earnest love story, Antoine Davis shares how he, and other men in prison, find love against the odds.
Joe Weil, a poet, professor, and Catholic, reflects on the death of Pope Francis, what he loved about the man, and what he hopes the late Pope sees differently on the other side of this world.
As a challenge to conventional advice about rest and recovery, poet Nada Faris explains the importance of working amid suffering for those who derive meaning and inspiration from their craft. Shakespeare, Woolf, and Orwell did some of their best work in times of despair, after all.
Alexander Zubatov
Sadhika Pant
Jimmy Alfonso Licon
Christopher Kelly
Jonathan Church
Robert Rich
Jonathan Church
David Byrne
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
