Greetings, my thoughtful, creative, politically responsible friends!

Welcome to a riot of obsolescence!

The Impartial Observer is an artistic and literary venture — a quarterly journal — that flies in the face of just about all contemporary trends. I hope you’ll want to be part of it.

This simple website is the most technologically advanced element of this whole initiative. I use email, too, of course — I’m not a Luddite — and am always happy to speak to you on the electric telephone. But the Impartial Observer itself is otherwise an entirely hand-crafted, artisanal publication. It’s a physical object you can hold, printed slowly and patiently in limited editions from cast metal type using equipment and tools that were new 150 years ago. As an artist, I consider it a work of art on paper. You know: “paper,” a traditional, noble material made of natural fibers, not “pay per” as in “pay-per-view.” With reasonable care, such a work on paper will last for centuries without requiring (as everything digital in the cloud does) a never-ending consumption of hydrocarbons. Just as to produce it required the destruction of hardly any hydrocarbons either. Oh, and it’s distributed strictly by hand or through the post. You can’t see it online.

The Impartial Observer is a venture that bucks other contemporary trends, too. I’m not seeking an enormous number of subscribers; I’m producing it only for friends like you. (If I don’t know you, introduce yourself. You’ll probably fit in nicely.) I accept no advertising. The Impartial Observer is not the mouthpiece for any movement nor a newsletter for any organization.

Although this work flows from diverse streams of interest and activity in my own life — as a visual artist, writer, Catholic, meditator, educator, and letterpress printer since childhood — I don’t intend it to be all about me. I’m inviting you, my friends, to help me write it and thereby form a loose community of reflection, creativity, and action. Specifically, I welcome from subscribers what I call “Paragraphs:” thoughtfully written texts of exactly 100 words (remember, the paper is composed by hand!), anchored in the first-person singular for authenticity, on one (or a combination) of the thematic interests we share, to wit:

• cultivation of a rich inner life through reflection, meditation, prayer, or similar practices;

• living creatively, intentionally and compassionately this one, precious life we share, and doing so with curiosity and good humor; and

• engaging in or supporting responsible social action to promote a more just, peaceful and inclusive world.

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