The Morning After

This writer predicted that half our nation would be suffering grief no matter who won the election. I am now in the minority of grief while apparently a majority are celebrating. This is called democracy, and presumably to model the practice of democracy one must endure the status and suffering of minority for a certain periods of time over a longer national history. The experience of powerlessness has lessons to teach. 

The loss I feel though is not the election itself. You can’t lose what you never had. I feel the loss of agency. What I feel and think to be ‘good’ remains in place within me, but not to feel the power and influence of that value set in political posture of culture and nation is painful. In the inventory of loss I feel powerless and suddenly, oddly, temporarily stateless. But from the perspectives of cognitive thought and history, I have to admit, the people celebrating today were suffering four years ago when it was my turn to cheer. 

In the matter of resistance my vow was and is to first resist the temptations of bitterness and cynicism within me. I am almost certain be called upon by circumstances in the next four years to step up my resistance to the bullying, crude insults and jokes, and the downgrading of the safety net of the vulnerable that has been the hallmarks of this man’s campaign, but I refuse to emulate his dark approach. This Good Decision website is designed to help you look for the light even in the darker shadows of history. My sense of good and morality exist independently of this market of power distribution and every good decision I make will continue to begin at my Sense of Good. Resistance, morally necessary as it is sometimes, is not relationship building and not a unifying energy beyond the minority community of resistance. I saw a bumper sticker that read “Make America Gracious Again”. That is a tall order, but we have to start somewhere. Our children and grandchildren are waiting.