Hello, happy new year, and welcome to the Recovery Issue!
It might seem preemptive to talk about recovery - we’re nearly a year (oh my god) into the wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, and although there’s light at the end of the tunnel, it still seems faint and far-off. How can we recover when we are not in the clear just yet? Will we ever be? If anyone knows please email us at therattlecap@gmail.com with the subject line: ‘the answer to it all’.
That said, the days in Edinburgh are slowly getting longer and warmer. Little yellow flowers are sprouting on the Meadows. Maybe a little positivity couldn’t hurt?
If you too are deciding to face each day with a PMA, then this issue is for you. We’re tackling recovery from a variety of angles - personal, cultural, national - the lot! If art therapy is your bag, then take a look at our Arts & Culture section with pieces and interviews from Ali, Emma and Antonina about recovery within the arts. Or, if you’re feeling more literary, check out Amelia’s piece on poetry as a tool for recovery, and grab your prescription from her selection of poems from the Poetry Pharmacy. We can also prescribe the wonderful creative writing pieces from Lara and Claire.
If, like many of us, this lockdown has often felt hopeless and emotionally trying, we hope you might be able to find comfort and a way forward in Holly’s piece about eating disorder recovery and Ece’s reflection on being a survivor of domestic abuse. And if you need a reason to rationalize your deepening Twitter or Tik Tok addiction, check out Paula’s article on the Armie Hammer scandal or Olivia’s on Tik Tok and compulsory heterosexuality.
Perhaps we might dare to remind you (sorry!) that the nation so many of us are unfortunately a part of is also in need of recovery right now. Check out Rhiannon’s piece on It’s A Sin or Ruby’s piece on Section 28 for illuminating ruminations on UK queer history - and look! Just in time for LGBTQ+ History month!
In all seriousness, we really hope you’re all doing okay. Last Sunday, thanks to our illustration coordinators, we hosted a virtual painting to music social, and it felt like the moment of calm that we all needed. For real this time, look after yourself! And remember that 2 hours of work a day, or just getting out of your pyjamas, is actually loads - tbh, not doing your work is probably an anticapitalist act of revolt or something totally cool like that xx
Love and solidarity,
Iz and Phoebe xo