Feeling to be what appears
Josephine Condemi
Dear reader,
Twelve months have passed since we embarked on this journey: at the end of February 2024, our Mangrovia was born, cheerful and ambitious. We celebrate this orbit around the Sun with four weeks dedicated to feelings, our ways of sensing that condense emotion into something deeper and more enduring.
After centuries in which feelings were treated as “passions” to be subjected to the rule of detached and instrumental rationality, the more we develop techno-social systems in which this goal-oriented rationality operates automatically, the more we realise that we can only truly understand what strikes us holistically, both body and mind.
Feelings already encompass reason in some way, because they are emotions to which we attribute meaning to tell ourselves how we are. Without reason, we would not be able to process our needs; without emotions and feelings, we would not be able to “sense” them when they arise.
Over these weeks, we will explore feelings in music, sentiment analysis in news coverage of climate change, and how empathy can be a key to overcoming fear and taking concrete action to protect and restore environmental biodiversity. Once again, we will seek to open pathways to the unusual and the unexpected, towards more sustainable futures for everyone—with a smile.
And it is in this spirit, tinged with a hint of sadness, that I face my final month as editor-in-chief of this publication. It has been a wonderful journey that has enriched me immensely, both professionally and personally, and I hope I have been able to give just as much in return. One thing that fills my heart is the realisation that in-depth, constructive journalism—transdisciplinary in every article, as intersectional and extra-European as possible, and unafraid to experiment transparently and collaboratively with AI, is indeed possible.
So, thank you: to the publisher, to the team, but above all to you, our reader, who continues to believe that the world can be a better place. It has been a twelve-month celebration, and now it is time to say goodbye.
Bon voyage!
