And so the masks come off, with great care.  We push the doors open and poke our faces out, wary.  We’ve been cooped up so long we can’t stand ourselves or each other any longer and need something fresh and new, something different.  But as soon as we step outside we are assaulted by all that heat!  Like a brick wall of HOT full force in our faces and there isn’t enough sunblock or sunglasses or wide-brimmed chapeaus to provide sufficient shade or protection.  There’s no getting around it:  either you go back inside – where you were on lockdown for over a year, where you watched every episode of every Netflix show three times over, where your walls still smell of all the sourdough-zucchini bread you baked and the keto-cheddar-broccoli dip you experimented with – or you face that heat.  Is there really a choice?  Go on and get yourself out there!  Strip down, jump in and bask in all that fire.  It’ll be OK because we’re all doing it together, like we have been doing all this time.  We have been through something, together, and we will likely be going through more, together.  We have protected each other, watched out for each other and, hopefully, been reminded that we’ve always been in this together, even if we didn’t know it.  So yes, get naked.  Get vulnerable.  Expose yourselves.  Follow the bold and courageous paths set by the wonderful artists, poets and storytellers you will find in the Summer 2021 Issue 14 of the Thieving Magpie.  Their fresh visions will cool you; their creative voices will soothe you; their willingness to jump into the fire will inspire you.  So make it a daring, dangerous, mischievous summer!  And don’t worry, we got our backs.  (No, that’s not a typo).