Dear Readers,
Thank you all for sticking with us during our single-issue sabbatical. I’m excited to share that we got a couple big projects rolling during the time we took off from writing and editing, which I’ll get to in a moment. But first, let me introduce the articles in our November/December 2020 issue, a bit of a variety pack with a new series to engage the intellect, a technique get your imaginations in gear, and an emotional ribbon tying it all together:
In The Depths of Dabrowski’s Levels, we conclude our two-part interview with Michael Piechowski with a discussion about the developmental trajectories represented by each of Dabrowski’s levels of development and possible future paths for the theory of positive disintegration.
In The Mind Palace, we welcome new contributor Boris L. Glebov, who shares a technique he adopted from Sherlock Holmes to power up his creative writing—though, as he discovered, it was not without some emotional risk.
In The Heroes of Our Own Political Stories, I give some background to a new project I’m starting to try to understand the varied political perspectives out there. It’s an introduction of sorts to the next two pieces, both by new contributors, which I hope will serve as a complementary pair of reflections on the evolution of the Democratic and Republican Parties here in the United States.
In Transcending Tribalism, Dan Greco, a lifelong liberal, describes how damaging trends he previously thought belonged to the Right are evident to him on the Left as well.
And in Between Scylla and Charybdis: A Radical Centrism, Frank Robinson, who has run for office as a Republican, describes the path that ultimately led to a swap in party affiliation.
Finally, in A Place for Orchids, I review a book that, though it doesn’t talk about overexcitability or giftedness, seems to get to the heart of those topics better than maybe any other book I’ve yet read.
Share Your Thoughts on a New Community Platform
So what have we been up to in our break from putting out new content? Lots! I’m keeping most of it hush-hush so we don’t spoil the surprises (unless you’re a forum participant, in which case you’ve heard me go on about them already).
One of them, however, is a project on which we’d like your feedback, and that is the possibility of a new community forum. Our discussion group is on Facebook right now; however, we know there are some of you out there who would like to get to know other Third Factor readers, but don’t want to use Facebook. (And we know that not everyone who does use it wants to keep doing so!) So we’re considering other options, including different text-based platforms like Circle.so or a Simple Press forum, as well as the possibility of offering live video-based discussions. In these forum platforms, we’d like to host all manner of discussions that our intense readers might like to have with like-minded souls. That might include feeding the highly active intellect with analysis of all manner of issues; it might include sharing things that stir our deep emotions in a constructive way; and it might include offering up the products of our imaginations, just to name a few.
Does any of this interest you? If so, we’d love to hear from you on specifically what you’d like in this department. We’ve put together a brief questionnaire this will help us make decisions about our possible new discussion platform(s). If you have a few minutes, please fill it out and send us your thoughts:
Third Factor Community Survey
Of course, you can also always email us with any comments or suggestions. We love hearing from readers and always appreciate your feedback.
Thank you again for being here, and we look forward to unrolling the fruits of our labors in the semi-near future. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this crop of articles!
All the best,
Jessie Mannisto
Editor in Chief
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