Inauguration Day
The day Donald Trump took the oath of office, I had my long brown hair cut short and dyed platinum blonde.
Friends have asked me why I did it — I’d never dramatically changed my hair before, never even considered it—and the truth is I didn’t mull it for more than five minutes. If it turned out horribly, who cared? It was only hair, and Donald fucking Trump was going to be president of the United States.
America feels right now like movies where people know the earth is about to get hit by an asteroid. And amid the despair, fear, and constant coursing anger, there is a kind of freedom.
The world is ending. Donald Trump is president. The usual rules do not apply.
If Donald Trump can be president, what is not possible—for ill, but also for good?
If Donald Trump can be president, you can run for office yourself. Why not? You’re literally more qualified to be a public official than the current president of the United States.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can start a protest movement that changes the country and the world. (We know because a few women already did.)
Smaller things that are still big, too:
If Donald Trump can be president, you can punch a Nazi without time-travel.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can finally tell that person you love that you love them.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can quit your job and start your own thing.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can get a dog or buy a truck even if you weren’t “a dog person” or “a truck person” before. (Remember: Donald Trump is president.)
If Donald Trump can be president, you can finally write that book.
If Donald Trump can be president, you, a grumpy person, can practice radical kindness.
If Donald Trump can be president, you, an accommodating person, can start telling people “no.”
If Donald Trump can be president, you can sit on the floors of airport terminals and use what you know to help people.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can finally leave the person who doesn’t treat you right.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can make art that changes minds.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can move across the country or to another one entirely.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can change your name or your gender if the one you have now doesn’t fit you and maybe never did.
If Donald Trump can be president, you can change that intractable thing about your world or yourself, because nothing is intractable anymore.
You know why? Because Donald fucking Trump is president.
The world is ending. We have to save it, and ourselves in the process, by blowing everything up and making it the way we want it as we put it back together again. Inauguration Day was the start of us doing and trying whatever the fuck we want in order to do it.
May we all defeat fascism and live a thousand years, platinum as we want to be, punching Nazis as we go. God bless America, amen.
