Letter From The Editor

In my Animal Behavior class, professor Elena Berg disparaged the way that pop-science often focuses on the combative nature of animal life, such as mating competitions, or violent resource allocation. She comfortingly remarked that there is often more cooperation than violence in nature, yet the harmony is rarely noticed. She joked that we don’t receive a New York Times notification whenever someone successfully sits on the subway without bothering anyone and then arrives to work on time - because it is usual and expected. With this new perspective on our perception of order and mutual effort in both nature and human society, I let out a breath of air I hadn’t noticed I’d been holding in. We are constantly bracing ourselves, angsting over the state of the world, feeling unsafe and afraid, sending warmth to our friends, and growing frazzled when we face disagreement. To combat the tension, this third issue of Hibou centers largely around cooperation. The goal is to engage in critical thinking, as well as developing an understanding of sociopolitical context - holding our world accountable while remembering that, though imperfect and messy at times, coexistence is happening. With articles about queer self-acceptance, the beauty and loneliness of Paris, and reconciling with nature, Hibou is striving to promote a nuanced version of identity while encouraging the use of identity politics, self-awareness, and global context as brilliant tools to generate change; if we remember to care for ourselves and resist the urge to sensationalize our existence, even while wielding our identity-based frameworks as the tools of resistance we know them to be, we may add some sweetness to the world.