Surveying the Damage

Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Hold it in for a moment. Let it out slowly.

Now, do it again. Focus on your breathing, just for the moment.

One more deep breath.

Better? A little?

When you open your eyes again, yes, Trump will still be our President-elect. Breathing exercises won’t change that. But let’s set the panic and grief aside and start to find acceptance.

We have not, as a country, jumped off a cliff. You are the same person today that you were Monday. So is your partner, and your parents, and your children. Change may be coming, but you have time to breath. And live. And even smile. It’s okay to not be miserable for a few minutes. Really, it is okay. You have my permission.

Enjoy fall, it is lovely. Root for your favorite football team. Take your kids to a silly movie. Let your life go on.

Because it is going to, regardless, even if you are too clenched to notice.

Life is a sine wave; peaks and valleys, good and bad, happy and sad. Don’t miss any of the good just because you sense bad in the future. Enjoy the good while you have it.

A lot is at stake in the next couple of years; I get it, and I am nervous too. Civil rights, reproductive rights, religious rights, all kinds of rights may hang in the balance. Watchfulness is appropriate. But not panic.

Trump is a buffoon but he’s not Sauron.

Some of his ideas are actually pretty good. NATO countries should be contributing their required share of defense. Globalization has hit us hard in ways that we as a country did not redress. No one can drive through northern Virginia without being stunned at just how big Washington has become.

Of course many of his other ideas are abhorrent, especially his personal views on … well mostly anything.

Yet I have hope. I hope Trump turns out to be the greatest president ever. It seems impossible that might happen, but then, it seemed impossible that he would become President at all.

I have dread too, but also, hope. Our country survived Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon, maybe we can survive Trump as well.

Hope is not complacency. I will be watching. I have family that is Hispanic, friends that are gay, colleagues that are Muslim. I will not abandon any of them.

We need to be watching, all of us. There may come a time when watching is not enough, when we will need to act, and if so I will do my part. But that time is not today.

Today is a day for hope, and watchfulness, but not action. And most definitely, not panic.

Hope, and watchfulness. That is enough.

For now.