Observations
At the Hospital After the Election
Just another day
“I want to feel what I feel. What’s mine. Even if it’s not happiness, whatever that means. Because you’re all you’ve got.”
― Toni Morrison
It was my birthday today.
The first week of November has always been a fine day for a birthday — the air is crisp, leaves are mostly fallen, and you can feel the blanket of winter coming soon.
But not today. Today was unseasonably warm — 80 degrees in New York.
A woman came to the desk at the hospital where I work. She noted, “it’s crazy, this weather.”
I looked at her carefully and replied, “Yep, there’s a whole lot of crazy out there right now.” Her eyes met mine. I couldn’t see anything. Not a wink, not a blink, not a hint of recognition or resonance, of anger or disappointment. Just — nothing.
In this hospital today, you could feel the tension. There was another layer of it on top of the usual.
People having babies, celebrating being grandparents or aunties for the first time. Others being wheeled in on wheelchairs, coming for a life-saving procedure or surgery, or trying to find…
