The Brothers of this Legend are …

Lezlie A. Kinyon, Ph.D., Editor

Dr. Donnell Miller:  Advisory Board Member

On New Years Eve Dr. Donnell Miller passed into the next world at 1:16 P.M. at Redlands Community Hospital in Redlands, California surrounded by his family.

We have lost one of our Elders this Holiday Season, so I will talk about him first… Don – as we knew him – was well beloved by all of students and colleagues; many of whom maintained a strong friendship with him well after our undergraduate years. His strength, wisdom and large heart will stay with me always.

(written 11/23/2014) Dr. Donnell Miller was my Advisor at Johnston College where I attended undergraduate school somewhere around the Brunch of the Dawn of Time. Don is the living expert on psychodrama and sociometry and was a member of the founding faculty of Johnston: an experiment in humanistic education founded during the tumult in education in the late 1960s. He has been a major influence on my life choices over the decades since. We have kept in touch through correspondence and the occasional meeting at a conference or other event. A man of great wisdom and a bigger heart: he is well loved by all of his former students, who tend to stay in touch, so deeply felt is his ability to connect people. It was because of Don that I met and studied with the luminaries of the field: Drs. Rollo May, Abram Maslow, Rivka Green, Zerka Moreno, Elizabeth Keubler-Ross … and, ultimately, Dr. Stanley Krippner, who became my mentor and dissertation advisor at Saybrook some 20 years later.

Don loved (and wrote) a good mystery the style of the “gumshoe genre” greats and has held up the torch of humanistic psychology for 50 (and, more) years. He is also a practicing Methodist minister and sings opera when prompted.

I do not know if Don has an animal spirit, but I often see him in an operatic style: accompanied by a Wagnerian creature of dragon-ish aspect. Magic swords to slay the daemons that life sends our way and journeys through fire to find sleeping maidens that need awakening to their inner strength and heroism: this is Dr. Donell Miller and, we, his students, are his legacy.

David Arv Bragi – Copywriter

Bragi is a very dear friend. We met in Berkeley through a mutual friend, and the minute I saw his somewhat rakish profile, shaved pate, and golden earring, I knew that I had met a kindred spirit. We have plotted and created, Circled together, made magic and laughed and – even – danced together in spirit and in the Sacred Circle many times since (and, lest we forget: at the Starry Plough Pub & Eatery to some great Celtic rock!). We share a mutual love of good writing, music, and the spiritual life. Bragi never ceases to amaze me with his insights and his excellent writing abilities. I have only recently discovered that the name, Bragi, is that of the Skaldic God of poetry in Norse mythology. It certainly fits.

As an aside: Bragi’s wife, Dolores, who is not a part of our journal, has also become very dear to me: she is a Dreamer – a fae spirit come to grace the world with her ancient magic. I sometimes visualize them both as the personification of The Lovers from a tarot deck dwelling a sacred, dreaming, Faery place of deep forest mysteries and the salty tang of the Pacific in the air and, most certainly, Tolkien’s Starlit Jewel held between them — perhaps as painted by Brian Froud or in a novel by Charles de Lint. I often see Herne (or, Cernunnos), the Horned Hunter of the forest and wild places in Celtic myth and the Shape-Shifting Deer Woman of Tewa legend around them.

Bragi pushes and inspires me, and, I hope all of us who work on Coreopsis, to higher standards of professionalism each issue. Don grounds me in keeping the standards of scholarship in place. I am honored by their presence and support.

Ivan Szendro, Artist in Residence: Dreaming Shaman

As the first Artist in residence Ivan is a part of this legend, too. From (nearly) the inception of this journal, Ivan has been there: an inspiration and a gentle presence. I see the legend growing and becoming something lovely, something that we – the Heras and Heroes of this Legend – can take joy and pride in creating and imagining, together: A Dream Manifesting.

Legendarily Yours, Lezlie … Your Editrix …