My Project 2025
Big things have happened since I last wrote in August. I:
honeymooned in Switzerland for ten wonderful days
struggled in an ill-fitting graduate program and withdrew after just six weeks1
turned 44 years old2
accepted a full-time remote position as Central and Southeastern Ohio Program Manager for Produce Perks Midwest
voted and confirmed that I am in the minority of my county, state, and country who choose reason and equity over other motivations
After a few days of deep grieving for the reality that America’s next four years will again be led by a felon who promises to futher erode human rights and natural resources, I began to actually feel emboldened. The election results revealed for me that the belief I held that the government will take care of people, all people including me, is not true and maybe never has been true3. I understand more clearly that I must nurture and protect myself, those I am closest to, and those the government dismisses. We are who we are looking for, we must take care of us.
Yesterday on Instagram4, central Ohio poet Maggie Smith alluded to writing a personal Project 2025.
Today, writer Saeed Jones responded with this poem, also available on his substack and podcast:
Here’s mine:
My Project 2025 By Rachel Tayse After Saeed Jones After Maggie Smith I am quiet, not silence in ignorance of the world warming beyond me, but still enough to notice the unveiling of what is. I am the night sky bright with auroras. I am a solar maximum rainbow born before a dark time, shining beauty out there and in here. I am a sugar maple, tapping my privileged roots deep into tainted ground water I transform. I eat sunlight and make shade and serve sweetness to tapped mouths. I am the Dude, enjoying interpretive dance amidst this bungled American heist, because there are rules, man: Art is Love.
Take good care of yourselves and your people, friends. This is a time to pull up the drawbridges, yes, and also make art and love loudly.
bless the self awareness that comes with aging
related: results from my happy-birthday-old-lady first-ever mammogram are clear and I’m hear to tell other members of the tiny titties club that it was so much less of a pain than I thought. We taking care of us includes preventative health screenings.
American Indigenous and black women, especially, have understood this their whole lives, and I return again to the wisdom of Rowen White, adrienne maree brown, and Kiara Jewel Lingo, among others.
social media which, incidentally, I am trying to minimize to protect my peace