Issue 532 | The Sun Magazine

April 2020

Readers Write

Accidents

An unplanned pregnancy, a twisted ankle, a case of dynamite

By Our Readers
One Nation, Indivisible

April 2020

Featuring Poe Ballantine, Brian Jay Stanley, David Edwards, and more.

The Dog-Eared Page

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is / you must lose things, / feel the future dissolve in a moment

By Naomi Shihab Nye
Quotations

Sunbeams

Show me a man or woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call “society.” Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare.

Stephen King, The Stand

The Sun Interview

One Of Us

Mark W. Moffett On The Social Behavior Of Humans And Other Animals

It’s important to compare things that are pretty alike, like humans and chimps, with their evolutionary ties, but when you find similarities between things that are ordinarily seen as very different, like humans and ants — that’s where the new ideas come from.

By Mark Leviton
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

No Accident

It was the first Friday of spring break, 1984, when I climbed into the bed of Greg’s compact truck, leaned back against the cab, and watched the keg party fade into the distance as we drove away.

By Kelly Daniels
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Home Range

The mare saw two of her herdmates die when she was captured. One, an exhausted gray stallion, fell and broke his neck in the trailer; the other, a chestnut foal, only weeks old, was chased until its leg fractured, and it had to be euthanized. That was the first this mare knew of our kind. Of our kindness.

By Chera Hammons
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

The Empty Set

I was six years old when I became aware that death was something that would happen to me. I was in the car with my mom, in the backseat because she followed the rules, and we were on our way home from the grocery store.

By Sam Bell
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Drinking With The Creek

What I do is sit with the creek. If it’s hot, perhaps I’ll sit in the creek. Two or three times, assisted by an inflatable pool toy, I have sat on the creek. But the preposition of choice remains with.

By Leath Tonino
Fiction

Man And Mouse

I will tell you this: If there is a God, he does not live in a slaughterhouse. That much I know. I hope the God everyone argues over so viciously is not looking out of those dead, glazed pupils, asking us to see him finally.

By Ann Wuehler
Fiction

The Second-Toughest Son Of A Bitch In East Gary, Indiana

He would have said, sometimes it’s not about the truth. Sometimes it’s about kindness. Especially when it comes to family.

By Sam Ruddick
Poetry

In The Car Ahead

He needs more time to brake / so he drives slow. He needs / more time to read traffic signs / so he drives slow.

By Michael Mark