I’m not a Luddite by any stretch. Truth be told, technology — specifically the internet and everything attached to it including the Pandora’s box of social media — plays a significant role in my day-to-day. It also makes my life more interesting through introductions to new people and connections to friends — real friends — across the nation and the globe. And it makes my life easier through the power of Google, which is now more familiar as a verb than it ever was as a noun. It’s broadened my horizons and, in fact, made my career. Though editor at ABOUT is my main job, I freelance for several other publications all of which feature digital publication and some are exclusively online.
Crazy as it sounds, I wouldn’t be me — who I am today — had I lived in another time of humanity by even a few decades.
But even with all the good, I often yearn for a simpler existence and a slower pace. And I treasure the relationships built over years of shared experiences in our little corner of the world seemingly tucked away from the hustle and bustle both geographically and in ideology.
This issue is a celebration of those textured connections to this place… sort of.
Writer Jeannie Fowler introduces us to Andi Kuroki who actually — physically — traveled half way around the world to help hone her skills as baker and all-around goodies craftsman. And then, with the accolades piling up, she settled here in the River Valley. Andi makes delicious food and drink the old-fashioned way: with local ingredients (when possible) and through a sensual connection to the process — the smells, the colors, the tactile sensations, and finally the tastes — that ensures she’s done it right.
Our second feature story, by Meredith Martin-Moats, is set atop Petit Jean Mountain, but the subject matter ranges across Carden Bottoms and on up to the Ozark hills. The artifacts and evidence of who was here, who called this place home before we came, are incredibly interesting. “The Teaching Barn,” AKA the Arkansas Archeological Office at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, provides a glimpse into that prehistoric world. The gardens filled with native and cultivated plants that were used in various ways by people who lived not on the land but with it, artifacts, maps, and a knowledge of this home of ours, that has often been home for others through the centuries, deepens our appreciation for the things we can touch and see and feel. The things that ensure our survival. The things that ensure our humanity.
We live in a time of wonder, sure. But here in the River Valley, it’s always been so.
Wonders in every era
