In Upheavals of Thought, the philosopher Martha Nussbaum writes that emotions should be understood as “geological upheavals of thought”—eruptions of our subconscious recognition that, in order to flourish, we require things from the world and from other people that are not fully in our control. Emotions, then, are an acknowledgement of our own neediness. Naturally, we don’t handle this well. “Human beings appear to be the only mortal finite beings who wish to transcend their finitude,” she writes. “Thus they are the only emotional beings who wish not to be emotional

THE PEOPLE’S PROJECT: Poems, Essays and Art for Looking Forward. This anthology of twenty-six writers is a community in book form. Maggie Smith and I have spent the last few months reaching out to the people we ourselves turn to for clarity and hope. My prayer for this book is in its pages we all will find maps, blueprints, and lodestars that guide us toward each other and toward the future we deserve.