Our world is full of attachments. We make connections with everything around us. The people we meet, the food we eat, the houses we live in; we are bonded to our surroundings; we are defined by what we are attached to. Beyond the external, we are connected to ourselves, the parts that constitute the inner self and nourish the immortal spirit.
The poets and artists in this issue have explored attachments in their lives. For some, it is a physical attachment that creates relationships. For others, it is a strong grip on an ideology. And at the cusp of technological advancement, Jeffrey Mackie鈥檚 鈥淢achines鈥� describes our reliance on technology. But thinking it further, are we proactively choosing technology as an attachment? Which or whom are we attached to behind that? Clearly, attachments surround all of us in many different ways, both explicitly and implicitly.
Dear Reader, as you browse through this issue, reflect on your own attachments, the ones you cling to, the ones you embrace, the ones that you wish to pull closer and the ones you wish to let go. Keeping the attachments which are strong and endearing, we let go of others. We pick them up wisely, but still, we might be bewildered and desperate. They manipulate our emotions; they create us as human beings.
As you peruse this issue and witness the various attachments in these works, rest and reflect on your own experiences. As you notice the many facets of attachments in these pages, we hope that they may awaken you to the web of attachments and your philosophy towards them in your own life.
With deep gratitude to the contributors to this issue of Radix for so generously sharing their reflections on Attachments with us.
Andrew Yang & Muzi Li
