Did you see what she did to him, did you hear what they said?
—Lou Reed,
“New York Telephone Conversation,” 1972
Welcome to Volume 43 of the CV Collective. (How did it get to be fall 2025 already?)
Since our theme is Spill the Beans, you might think that we’ll be bringing you a bunch of juicy, never-before-heard tales and shocking tell-alls about your friends and neighbours.
We humans love to tell (and hear) tales about other people. And there’s something extra-appealing about hearing news that maybe we shouldn’t be privy to—whether it’s personal tittle-tattle of the sort that Lou Reed sang ironically about, a big announcement before it goes public, or a fascinating fact that we’d just never heard about before.
Our focus, as always, is more on the fascinating facts than the saucy gossip. (That said, in this fall issue, we do have one tale of outdoor sex under the moonlight . . . from a very unexpected source.)
But in keeping with our usual commitment to celebration, not titillation, we’ve got all kinds of insider dispatches for you. Among them:
Two musicians and a writer talk about baring their souls—and one woman bares her body to share her healing journey. We go deep under Comox Lake, to the tops of local peaks, and all the way to Patagonia with intrepid adventurers. A photographer and a filmmaker come out from behind their cameras to explain how they get other people to spill the beans.
Those aren’t even the hottest stories in this issue. We look back at the dirty work of coking coal in Union Bay—where the ovens ran night and day at up to 2000°C—and consider today’s rapidly heating planet in an interview with John Vaillant, author of the fascinating, horrifying book about the 2016 Fort McMurray fire: Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World.
As you make your way through these and other stories in this issue, I hope you’ll be struck, as I always am, by the immense breadth of interests, talents, and experiences of those who live in our community. What really amazes me is that each story about or by a Valley resident focuses on just one facet of a life. Spills just one bean out of the millions that make up a lifetime.
I often think the most interesting and fundamental question we can ask another person is “What’s it like to be you?” Of course, it’s impossible ever to get a complete answer, because a) we’re always changing and b) we’re all like icebergs as we float through our lives: we only share tiny parts of ourselves, even with our loved ones, while the rest remains hidden under the surface.
It’s harder still to answer that question in a short magazine article, even when it’s specifically about one event, practice, or activity. (As editor, I always want to know more, and hate having to cut words to make things fit on the page.)
And yet, in every issue, people agree to give our readers a glimpse—however brief and fleeting—of what it’s like to see the world through their eyes. Sharing their stories is a pleasure, and an honour, for the CVC team: with each one, another piece is added to the Comox Valley’s ever-expanding narrative—another thread in the web that connects us all.
