A Little Post-Election Perspective

I woke up on what could have been any work day, but something surprising, unanticipated, and scary had gone down. Phone calls were made within minutes. People were crying, gasping, in shock. How could this happen? We gathered, we cried some more, talked about how insane this was, how things would never be the same. What?! A state of disbelief. We didn’t ask for this, we didn’t want this… We couldn’t imagine ever getting past it.

On that morning, we were introduced to a new reality. No amount of crying, yelling, anger, or sorrow would change what happened. We had to begin the painful process of erasing future projections from our minds. We began grappling with the truth that was thrust in our faces. Our new reality was uncharted. We felt ill prepared to deal with it.

In our shock, we forgot our resilience. We forgot that we weren’t alone, that we’d never be alone. When we looked into the future and didn’t see what we expected, we forgot how we managed to get that far in the first place. How could we go on? We forgot that everything learned up to that point had prepared us to deal with whatever came next.

Things can’t always go our way. That's life. On that day my standard reaction became, “This is unfortunate inevitability for us all. All we can do is handle it with as much grace as possible.”

That day was June 22, 2015, when my dad died.

Yesterday, November 9, 2016, we were ushered into a new uncharted reality that no amount of crying, yelling, flag burning, or Trump supporter beating will change. Yet, in a few years, and even over the next four, changes can and will be made to that reality. This is not the end of any story.

We are Americans. We are equipped. Breathe.