What you hold in your hands is different from any other More than Money issue. This October, we took a deep breath and jumped off the cyberspace diving board. At our initiative, five different groups of More than Money readers began writing to each other via e-mail. The result? Splash! This issue lets you swim into several invigorating pools of readers' perspectives.

We imagine that many of you are reluctant converts to the glories and pressures of super-speed technology. We are too. When fax machines first became popular we snorted with scorn, "Why on earth can't people wait two days for the mail!" Now our fax machine hums many times daily, and we think, "What would we do without it?" We tentatively dipped our toes into e-mail this past summer and, while not yet addicts, have grown increasingly charmed by its ability to facilitate connection and community across distance.

The building of connection and community is an essential part of More than Money 's mission. For most of us, money comes encrusted with family and societal attitudes: more is always better; there's never enough; money is evil; money solves all problems; only men should handle the money, etc. Silence and isolation glue such assumptions in place. By enabling honest exchange about the complex human issues that accompany financial abundance, More than Money aims to penetrate unquestioned "shoulds" and to help readers find their own paths towards clarity, integrity and action. E- mail can be an ideal medium for reaching out, as it offers the rare combination of anonymity and connection.

As people step beyond the silence concerning money, the spiritual and political contexts that frame their personal questions become more evident. For example, we both feel confounded by living at a time of staggering inequality: when over a trillion dollars a decade are passing from one generation of Americans to the next; when the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population (those with household assets of $2.4 million or more) own more than the bottom 92% combined, and the richest 358 people in the world own 40% of all the personal income worldwide. As the reverberations of these disparities are felt throughout society, we ask ourselves, "How do we act in the midst of such enormous trends?" Being in touch with all of you, via e-mail and otherwise, helps us think through constructive responses.

Whatever implications of wealth you tend to muse over, be they personal, political or spiritual, we believe that being in dialogue with others can enlarge your perspective.

Thus, we are exploring several ways to help our growing membership expand the circles and to connect more to each other. We hope you will check out the insert page for initial local discussion groups and on-going e-mail possibilities. Crack open our eight-page resource guide or order our sixty-eight page edition of Taking Charge. Call up one of the organizations described and check out one of their events. Put a notice in the next issue to find other readers near you, or write down your own story for one of the upcoming issues. Or simply show an issue of More than Money to a friend or family member and say, "Hey, what do you think of this?" Whatever level of money dialogue you now enjoy, we invite you to take a fresh risk to reach out.

--Anne Slepian and Christopher Mogil, editors