Open Minds Quarterly
Volume 7 Issue 2
Summer 2005
“What reader,” says Maureen D. Mack, “does not search for a happy ending at the end of a love
story? How many of us yearn for a better ending to a human conflict or loss that we have
suffered in our lives?” Mack’s “A Better Ending,” which appears in the summer 2005 issue of
Open Minds Quarterly, recounts her and her mother’s experience with depression. The power
to create and recreate stories, better beginnings or endings, is often taken for granted by
those who do not suffer from the symptoms of mental illness. For those who do, a real sense of
powerlessness, heightened by the inability to find a place of value in society, and silence
heightens their struggle to cope. Open Minds offers a selection of poetry, informative and
reflective essays, fiction, and book reviews, all of them first person accounts of experiences
and knowledge in dealing with conditions, mental health practitioners, services, treatments,
discrimination and even, yes, success. This issue is portrayed in a warm, bright, inviting
format, which is easy to read in few sittings. Throughout the pages, alongside the pain, thrives
an atmosphere of celebration. Several lines in G. Michael Miller’s poem “London Psychiatric
Hospital Revisited” express the reason for such a positive climate. “Love is stronger than
psychiatry,” Miller says; and of the reason for writing: “Real art is stronger than a hospital.”
Through art, these writers reveal not only a voice but also a talent. Recounting her trip by bus
to the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, after having been asked to contribute one of her
paintings, Jerome Frank, in “Mind at Ease,” says that “Despite my OCD, depression and social
phobia, I had succeeded.” The magazine listed the winners of the 3rd Annual Brain Storm
Poetry and Short Story Contests as well as information about other contests. Front and back
artwork by Terry Pretz includes “Butterfly Girl” and “Michael.” [Open Minds Quarterly, 680
Kirkwood Drive, Sudbury, ON Canada, PSE 1X3. E-mail: openminds@nisa.on.ca.
www.nisa.on.ca] —Donna Everhart