A Year in Reading: When the Going Gets Tough
I’ve been reading Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, by Margaret Atwood.
我一直在读玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《生命之书：某种回忆录》。
She mentions something that I can relate to as I write this letter: November is the gloomiest month.
当我写这封信时，她提到了一些与我相关的事情：十一月是最阴郁的月份。
Not that I need a reminder: It’s the pit of fall, before seasonal celebrations brighten the dark, the time of year when light is scant and the sky is low and gray.
并不是说我需要提醒：这是秋天的深渊，在季节性庆祝活动照亮黑暗之前，一年中光线不足，天空低沉而灰色的时候。
This season, somehow, feels right for the stories I loved most this year.
不知何故，这个季节适合我今年最喜欢的故事。
Like my sky, they’re heavy.
就像我的天空一样，它们很沉重。
But amid trial and trauma—or perhaps even despite them—many of these stories dare to hope.
但在考验和创伤中——或者甚至尽管如此——这些故事中的许多都敢于抱有希望。
There’s a sense of resilience among them that’s stuck with me and given me strength this past year.
他们身上有一种坚韧的感觉，这种感觉一直困扰着我，并在过去的一年里给了我力量。
Back in July, Aaron Parsley wrote “The River House Broke.
早在七月，亚伦·帕斯利（Aaron Parsley）就写了《河边的房子破裂了》。
We Rushed in the River.” for Texas Monthly.
我们冲进河里。”德克萨斯月刊。
Parsley reports from Kerr County, where in the early hours of July 4, 2025, a flash flood on the Guadalupe River lifted his family’s cottage off its foundation and tore it apart, with him and six relatives asleep inside.
欧芹在克尔县报道，2025 年 7 月 4 日凌晨，瓜达卢佩河爆发的山洪将他家的小屋从地基上掀起并将其拆毁，他和六名亲戚睡在里面。
“The gravity of our situation didn’t sink in right away, but the facts were clear,” he writes.
“我们的处境的严重性并没有立即被认识到，但事实很清楚，”他写道。
“We were surrounded by fast-moving floodwater, and we had no way of escaping to higher ground.” His first-person account is intense and heart-wrenching.
“我们被快速移动的洪水包围，我们无法逃到地势较高的地方。”他的第一人称叙述是激烈而令人心碎的。
It’s a difficult but necessary read, one that will make you want to grab and hug your loved ones.
这是一本困难但必要的读物，它会让你想要抓住并拥抱你所爱的人。
Then, more recently, also under the category of stories I’ll never forget, is “Heavy Metal is Healing Teens on the Blackfeet Nation” by B.
最近，同样属于我永远不会忘记的故事类别的是 B. 的《重金属正在治愈黑脚国家的青少年》。
‘Toastie’ Oaster at High Country News.
高地新闻的“Toastie”Oaster。
Oaster covers a teacher-made heavy metal music course at the reserve’s alternative high school, one that creates deep community among the students, almost all of whom have been affected by the suicide of a loved one.
奥斯特在保护区的另类高中开设了一门由教师制作的重金属音乐课程，该课程在学生之间建立了深厚的社区，几乎所有学生都受到亲人自杀的影响。
“Heavy music teaches us things such as we’re not alone; when life is dark, we do something about it,” says teacher Charlie Speicher.
“重音乐教会我们一些事情，比如我们并不孤单；当生活一片黑暗时，我们会做点什么，”查理·斯派克老师说。
“We’re not just a prisoner to that darkness.
“我们不仅仅是黑暗的囚徒。
But also that our risk fluctuates, that our misery isn’t gonna last forever.
但我们的风险也会波动，我们的痛苦不会永远持续下去。
There are ways through it.” While Oaster’s story starts out with despair, it ends on a loud, ringing note of hope, something I also found in Jeannette Cooperman’s moving piece for The Common Reader, “My Friend Chooses How and When to Die.” Ann Mandelstamm was in her mid-80s when she made the decision to complete her own life by choosing an assisted death.
有办法解决它。”奥斯特的故事以绝望开始，却以响亮、响亮的希望结束，我在珍妮特·库珀曼为《普通读者》撰写的感人文章《我的朋友选择如何和何时死去》中也发现了这一点。安·曼德尔施塔姆 (Ann Mandelstamm) 在 80 多岁时决定通过安乐死来结束自己的人生。
As Cooperman grapples with her friend’s choice and grieves for her, she begins to understand that Mandelstamm didn’t reject life, she chose to celebrate her full life by ending it with dignity, on her terms.
当库珀曼为朋友的选择而苦苦挣扎并为她感到悲伤时，她开始明白曼德尔施塔姆并没有拒绝生活，她选择按照自己的方式有尊严地结束生命，以此来庆祝自己完整的生命。
Agency is at the heart of Mandelstamm’s story and it takes different forms in the final two stories I want to highlight.
能动性是曼德尔施塔姆故事的核心，在我想强调的最后两个故事中，它以不同的形式出现。
In “The Last Face Death Row Inmates See,” for Rolling Stone, Brenna Ehrlich profiles the Rev.
在《滚石》杂志的《死囚看到的最后一张脸》中，布伦娜·埃利希 (Brenna Ehrlich) 介绍了牧师。
Jeff Hood, a Catholic priest committed to helping condemned men find redemption, regardless of what they’ve done in life.
杰夫·胡德（Jeff Hood）是一位天主教神父，致力于帮助被判刑的人找到救赎，无论他们一生做过什么。
Ehrlich’s prose is bold and animated, just like her main character: “A foulmouthed firebrand who doesn’t really care if the men he works with are innocent or not, Hood thinks all people are worthy of love and redemption, the death penalty is evil, and those men tunneling their way into the guts of Big Mac to administer the needle are just as murderous as some of the folks they’re set to kill.” This is a visceral account of someone who practices true compassion and forgiveness, choosing to hold eye contact with even those who have committed heinous crimes.
埃利希的散文大胆而生动，就像她的主角一样：“一个满口脏话的煽动者，并不真正关心与他一起工作的人是否无辜，胡德认为所有人都值得爱和救赎，死刑是邪恶的，那些钻进巨无霸内部注射针头的人与他们准备杀死的一些人一样凶残。”这是一个内心深处的描述，讲述了一个人实践真正的同情心和宽恕，甚至选择与那些犯下滔天罪行的人进行目光接触的人。
Supporting humans in their darkest hour is probably the greatest gift one can give another.
在人类最黑暗的时刻为人类提供支持可能是一个人可以给予他人的最伟大的礼物。
I’m reminded of “In Defense of Despair” by Hanif Abdurraqib for The New Yorker.
我想起了《纽约客》哈尼夫·阿卜杜拉吉布（Hanif Abdurraqib）的《捍卫绝望》。
Abdurraqib relates being part of a group for people who have gone through periods of wanting to die.
阿卜杜拉吉布 (Abdurraqib) 讲述了自己是一个为经历过求死期的人而设的团体的一员。
There, dark humor finds community and each meeting opens with a single question, one infused with a kind of optimism: “What is keeping you alive today?” For Abdurraqib, that day, it was the quality of sunlight through his window and his beloved dog, Wendy, who inspired him to keep going.
在那里，黑色幽默找到了社区，每次会议都以一个问题开始，其中充满了一种乐观：“是什么让你今天活下去？”对于阿卜杜拉吉布来说，那天，透过窗户的阳光和他心爱的狗温迪激励他继续前进。
We’ve all experienced deep pain and also expansive joy.
我们都经历过深深的痛苦，也经历过巨大的快乐。
We’re beautiful messes, every one of us.
我们每个人都是美丽的一团糟。
I recall all these pieces alongside a short essay by Devin Kelly over at Ordinary Plots, a thoughtful newsletter where he dives deep into a single poem each week.
我记得所有这些作品以及德文·凯利在普通情节上发表的一篇短文，这是一份深思熟虑的时事通讯，他每周都会深入研究一首诗。
Here, he reflects on “Colic,” a poem by Margaret Draft in which the speaker recounts a gravely ill horse.
在这里，他回顾了玛格丽特·德沃特的一首诗《绞痛》，其中说话者讲述了一匹病重的马。
Says Kelly: “To be moved, I would say, to be moved at all, whether to joy or sorrow, whether to some unshakeable sadness or some happiness that no made thing could contain—is there anything better?” He goes one to note: “To make space in this world is an act of great care .
凯利说：“我想说，被感动，被感动，无论是喜悦还是悲伤，无论是无法动摇的悲伤还是任何人造物都无法包含的幸福——还有比这更好的吗？”他指出：“在这个世界上腾出空间是一种非常谨慎的行为……”
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You make the space of your heart through the open door of your ears.
你通过敞开的耳朵之门来创造你的心灵空间。
You hollow out yourself, sometimes, to make room for someone else.”
有时你会掏空自己，为别人腾出空间。”
I thought of his words as I wondered whether my list of stories was simply too much: too heavy, too dark, too emotional, enough to make some turn away.
我想起他的话，想知道我的故事清单是否太多了：太沉重、太黑暗、太情绪化，足以让一些人转身离开。
But sharing them is worth the risk.
但分享它们是值得冒险的。
Few experiences are more human than to be moved to tears of joy, of anger, of sorrow—small, private offerings for people you do not know, nor will ever meet.
很少有比因喜悦、愤怒或悲伤而流泪更人性化的经历了——为你不认识、也永远不会见面的人提供的小小、私人的奉献。