from
THE EDITOR
Dear reader,
When we chose “home” as the theme for our Fall 2020 issue, the
spring semester was just starting. January was cold but full of
promise: new beginnings, new opportunities, new classes. On a
personal note, I was happy to be back at Brown after a semester
abroad, and I was feeling optimistic about Cornerstone’s future.
At the time, we had no way of knowing that in just two
months, we’d all be sent home due to COVID-19 concerns.
All of a sudden we found ourselves packing up our suitcases
in a hurry, booking last minute plane tickets, and saying
goodbyes to all our friends in March instead of May.
So, for the first time, I find myself writing this letter at
home, in my small town in southwest Georgia. Our staff,
including our new design team, is scattered from coast to
coast, continent to continent. Reader, if this issue is in your
hands—thank the hardworking writers, editors, and designers
who have been so willing to work from home under
these unusual circumstances. I can’t say enough how
grateful I am for such a wonderful community of people.
This sense of community is what makes Cornerstone meetings
feel like home. But home can mean so many things. I
feel at home talking with friends over granola bowls at Andrews.
I feel at home laughing with my suitemates late into
the night. I feel at home with my family in Georgia, speaking
a jumbled hybrid of Korean and English. But there is
a Home which is somehow more than all of this. A Home
beyond any of our best imaginings. That Home is God—
God, who hung on a cross and forgave us as we mocked him,
who called us home to his love even as we rejected him. Our
hearts are restless, St. Augustine wrote, until they rest in him.
In this issue, our staff writers approach the theme of
“home” in different ways, but every piece ultimately orients
us to God. Join us in marveling at the goodness of
God’s creation, which is our shared here-and-now home.
Imagine the spiritual journey as a passage through mansions
of the soul, the way St. Teresa does in The Interior Castle.
Reflect on the role of the Church and the way it points
us to our eternal home with God. Meditate on the sacredness
of the ordinary in Marilynne Robinson’s novel Home.
This issue opens with “Always [September 2018],” a poem
Kaitlan Bui wrote just days into her first year at Brown, having
left home far behind for college. Waiting to welcome you home
at the issue’s end (so to speak) is “Always [March 2020],” a response
poem Kaitlan wrote in her sophomore spring. We hope
that from the issue’s start to its finish, you’ll see that God is our
always. He is the constant in times of uncertainty and chaos. He
is the rock that is higher, the cornerstone upon which we stand.
No matter where you are, no matter who you are, God is inviting
you to come in. God is inviting you to come Home.
Yours truly,
Naomi Kim is a junior at Brown studying English.
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