Like many people in the United States, I've been feeling exhausted lately. I think "exhausted" is the most upbeat word I can use to describe life in the U.S. in 2025. There are two videos that have really kept me going recently that I've watched multiple times. I can't recommend these enough. One is "Wealth Inequality: The Quiet Apocalypse" by The Functional Melancholic on YouTube, and the other is "Are you being traumatized by all of this?" from Parkrose Permaculture. Videos from Bernie Sanders and MeidasTouch are, of course, crucial as well.
When I contact politicians in the state I currently live in, I get responses of word salad that avoid the issues entirely. Sometimes responses come addressed to "Mr. Johnson" and even "Mr. Margaret Johnson," as if they are trying to phase out the use of "Ms." and only want to recognize the existence of men and married women. I'm sure their people would explain this as an error, but is it really an error when it happens repeatedly? Over the years, I've had a couple of students like that that could only refer to women by Mrs. or ma'am and seemed incapable of saying Ms. or Miss even if their life depended on it. As I said before, I'm so tired.
I recently finished reading two amazing books. The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation by Charlotte Beradt (1907-1986) was originally published in the 1960s. Princeton University Press has published this new edition translated by Damion Searls, with a foreword by Dunya Mikhail. We are so lucky to have this book. The strange dreams that people started having around the time that Hitler rose to power mirror the strange dreams that many of us have been having since the beginning of the second Trump presidency. What makes fascism in the U.S. in 2025 so heartbreaking (and frustrating), is that the entire U.S. should know better. We have so much history to learn from. History that some people choose to ignore or never learn about, and history that despite being horrifying, some Americans choose to glorify. I would like to think that most Americans don't want another period of having to fight against Nazis, however, sadly, Trump won the election. The Third Reich of Dreams is one of the most important books that people in the U.S. can read in 2025. It speaks to the genocide happening around the world and the genocide that will happen even in the United States as the GOP makes it impossible for people to receive the health care they need. So many avoidable deaths all over the world. It's certainly not what Millennials like me thought the future would be like when we were growing up. I am sad for Gen Alpha, who didn't get to experience any of the years of decency, and Gen Z, who experienced very few of the years of normalcy that Millennials and older generations experienced.
I also recently read Son of a Bird by Nin Andrews. (Published by Etruscan Press.) Nin Andrews is an icon in contemporary poetry. After accomplishing so much, some writers would not be taking the risks that she does, but that makes it a Nin Andrews book. The book is a memoir in prose poems which I read all in one sitting because it's so powerful and cinematic. This book is like a play by Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee in that there is no going back after experiencing it. In the best way possible.
I am currently reading Good Dress by Brittany Rogers (Tin House, 2024) and I'm loving it. I knew I had to read this book after seeing a video of Rogers reading the poem "Hunting Hours." I'm obsessed with the knockout ending of this poem. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Brittany Rogers in the future.
