It’s been over three weeks since our 2024 presidential election, transporting our nation into a vortex of uncertainty, ambiguous theories, fear, and an overall disquieting pall.  My last post was two days post-election when people were teetering, waiting for the axe to fall or hoping to wake up from a ghastly dream.  Ouch!  That sounds a little harsh.  Unfortunately, it’s true.  Many felt paralyzed.  Many were beyond sad.  What the heck just happened?  I’ve heard this echoed, over and over again.

I don’t know how you worked through this thunderbolt, but I decided to take my own advice and unplug for a few.  I turned off the news and watched The Voice (impressive talent this season, btw), listened to music, prepared a few meals, started learning an easy piano version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! and then…FOMO.  Yup.  Fear of missing out on what I was missing.  So, I plugged back in and guess what?  Nothing changed.  As I write this, I’m sitting in my inspiration room.  Some would call it a home office but for me it’s where I’m surrounded by all things that provide motivation, comfort, encouragement, and thoughts – art, music, photographs, mementoes, precious gifts, and books, of course.  Living well above terra firma, I’m eye-to-eye with birds flying by, nearer to the heavens.  How strange that must seem to someone living on the ground.  It’s early morning and, already, there is a steady stream of cars going to who knows where.  The lake is calm, no blustering winds this morning.  From afar, I see the park where leaves are turning yellow and orange and, in the middle, a zoo, free to anyone interested in learning the ways of nature, one of my very favorite places.

In other words… Life hasn’t stopped.  It goes on.  And so do we.

So, during my recess from worldly news, I decided it was time for the annual pre-holiday dusting of the bookshelves.  Now, keep in mind, I’ve had these treasures for years but each time I disassemble and reorganize it’s like Christmas.  The chore is tiresome and takes me forever and a day, in part because I start reading and darn if I don’t find something new, something I missed the last time I turned those pages.  I remember interviewing an author who said they always start with the last word and then write the story in reverse.  Ever since then, I have a habit of reading the last paragraph of a story before purchasing the book.  If it grabs my attention and piques my curiosity, I’ll buy the book.  Works every time.

Books bring me to a place of calm.  They always have, even as a child.  All is well in the world with a book in hand.  Remember teacher asking what we did on our Christmas vacation?  My answer was always the same.  I read four books.  

People come into my home and say it’s like walking into Barnes & Noble.  I take that as a compliment.  I’ve always said, my wish is to have a My Fair Lady library.  Remember the one in the movie, the one Henry Higgins had in his home that mesmerized Eliza Doolittle?  The one that reached to the timbers with stairs and ladders and wall-to-wall books?  That one.  But for now, my mini adaptation will do.   

Anyway… I have a book written by Robert Fulghum called “Words I Wish I Wrote”.  It’s a compilation of writers who inspired his writing through their own.  Baldwin, Shakespeare, Emerson, Stephen Stills, and so on.  I get it.  Because all the books on my shelves and their authors have, in some way, shaped my inspiration.  Sometimes I embrace the escape for a short while and, at other times, the words call out to me, speaking to the here and now.

In his book, Fulghum cites the source of this quote as anonymous, and while I’ve heard this said many times in many ways, my guess is the source is not just one but many.  It goes like this…

If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

While sitting in silence, this is the answer we needed to hear.  But did we?  For some of us, it’s loud and clear.  For others, I’m not so sure.  I’ve heard some claim that this upheaval is something we need to go through, something to learn.  I’m trying to understand what that is, but I’m not quite there.  And, so far, no one has been able to explain it to me.  All I know is we got what we got because support was pledged to the one we already knew.  Now we need to deal with it.

What I’m hearing, often, is the word Resistance.  Resist.  Challenge.  Defend.  Pray.  Wait.

I’m an advocate at heart.  But the energy it takes to resist and challenge is, in itself, challenging right now.  I’m also a believer in God and, somehow, I see him up there saying, “Now what have they done.  What do I have to do to clean up this mess – again.”  Now, I know half this country will take exception to what I just said.  There is no mess, you might say.  You might even say there is no God.  On that we will disagree.  

I hoped that by now, almost a month after the election, we’d be in a better place.  It is what it is.  But it’s become clear that fears and anxiety about the future persist.  Rarely a day goes by when I don’t encounter someone who needs to vent their distress.  Neighbors, cab drivers, strangers in supermarket lines.  So, I just listen.  I have a tendency to want to fix it, whatever it is.  You know, don’t worry.  I’ll make it better.  But this time I can only say I’m sorry.  I don’t have the answers.  None of us do, but I hear you.  

So, what comes next?  Where do we go from here?  

Pundits have said it won’t be getting any easier, any time soon.  Others have said we should just cool our jets and chill.  Easier said than done, I know.  I realize that many are sitting on the struggle bus right now.  The days can be hard, at times.  

So, what do we do with all this?  I keep hearing Barry Manilow’s lyrics, “I made it through the rain…I kept my point of view.”  Resist if you might.  Defend and challenge if you can.  Above all, help each other.  I’m going to pray…for the well-being of women, children, and families, for the comfort of our senior citizens, for the health and safety of our nation, and for our freedom.  I will sit in silence and ask my questions.  And wait.  Maybe there’s another answer.  I’m listening.

I’ve just been distracted by a noise outside my window.  There’s someone in a car in the alley down below, honking like crazy at the garbage truck stopped in front of it.  Sorry, Charlie.  You’re not going anywhere until that truck decides to move.  It’s kind of a metaphor for where we stand right now.  All the self-searching, pearl clutching, lamenting, shoulda, coulda, woulda, won’t change anything.  We will move forward when it’s time.  My new mantra.  We will move forward.

In the meantime, perhaps we should listen to the advice of the great Mary Poppins and take a spoonful of sugar because what may well be coming our way might need a little sweetening.

Now… Exhale.

Just my thoughts…

If interested, “Words I Wish I Wrote” by Robert. Fulghum is available on Amazon.   You might also check out Good Reads online or your local public library.

As one who promotes the joy of reading in any form, I am happy to share where you might find books referenced in this blog.  I generate no revenue for myself from Amazon or any other venues suggested.