Today’s letter is for paid subscribers. I hope you will consider upgrading to join us! One hopeful book recommendationNotes from parenting in the third trimester and a hopeful book rec for dark times
Hi readers, wow. I certainly did not mean to leave you hanging without an email from me for over a week. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without sending anything in the nine years I’ve been writing newsletters, which should give you a hint about how life has been lately… On that note, today, I wanted to catch you up quickly on what I’ve been up to, plus share some housekeeping announcements re: my upcoming maternity leave (which is coming up so fast, what!).
First, some housekeeping notesI plan to take maternity leave from March 6th through June 5th. Here’s what to expect, according to the current plan:
And now a book rec + life latelyRecommending one hopeful read Bess Kalb wrote the perfect piece recently that captures our strange moment in time, especially for parents of young kids who, of course, have no clue what is happening in the U.S. and are, for now, mercifully insulated from it. The show must go on. Lunches must be made. The parenting continues while two-year-olds and two-month-olds are being detained by ICE and separated from their parents. All while life continues inside our warm, safe homes. The cognitive dissonance is brain-melting. I can’t ignore the gut-level despair that hits when I read the news, and it hit me especially hard last week. How are we supposed to raise children in times like these? And, also in the back of my brain, and just as insistently: what am I doing bringing another baby into this world? The pull toward despair is strong and tempting. But despair, I know, is a dead end. So I cracked open Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit for the second time in the past year and found what I was looking for: words of encouragement.
Solnit’s book of essays was first published in 2005 in response to the Iraq War and reissued in 2015 to address another period of political fear and fracture. Reading it now, in 2025, it feels evergreen, which is the point of the whole book: the rise (and fall, and rise again) of authoritarianism, and the reminder that meaningful change has almost always come from people on the ground who pair hope with action. I recommend picking up a copy if you can. Here are just a few quotes and takeaways that give grounding perspective: Uncertainty is an opportunity for influence:
We must pair hope with action:
The people have the power:
The important message I took away from this book was that in the midst of fear and uncertainty, there’s so much space for hope, as long as it’s paired with action. The impact of said action might not be seen for years or even decades, but it’s not nothing. Contributing to the collective discourse and imagination counts³. It’s not enough to be politically aware or informed; hence the well-worn advice to take breaks from doomscrolling the news and find ways (any way, minuscule or large) to do something:
I feel buoyed by Solnit’s words: that we’re able to hold hands with others who share our values and beliefs and look toward the wild possibilities. On that note, thanks to paid subscribers, I was able to donate $800 to the Immigrant Defense Network of Minneapolis this month. Thanks to everyone who subscribed and/or made a direct donation! * * * Notes from the third trimesterSome personal notes and updates I shared in our subscriber chat that D.C. was essentially snowed in for a few days last week (and parts of the city still are, somehow). We had a few inches of snow, which then became compacted into frozen, impenetrable mountains thanks to a subsequent sheet of sleet. Translation: parents everywhere were screwed. Daycares were closed, and schools in our county only reopened today (I KNOW). If you were in the same boat, solidarity!... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Downtime to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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utorak, 3. veljače 2026.
One hopeful book recommendation
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