Lydster: the election

“You may need to grieve or scream”

My daughter texted me around 11:00 PM the evening of the election (November 5th) and asked me many questions about how the electoral process works regarding voter estimates. She wondered what would happen, and I said I had no clue. It was true, very true. The next morning around 6:30, she called on the landline, and she was upset. I was asleep, but her mother talked to her and made her feel better.

I know that she recognizes that some of her friends were feeling even worse than she was. They believe, not without cause, that the election results endangered their lives. 

But her whole generation feels in peril because it seemed at the time, and even more so now, that the incoming administration will not be terribly responsive to climate change issues; a bit of an understatement, I suppose.

I’m unsure I found the right words for her because I’m still trying to find the correct words for myself. I muddle through, though it feels like walking through pea soup.

Rebecca Solnit

If I get a do-over, I will probably share these words with Rebecca Solnit. “They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.

“You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

“The Wobblies used to say, ‘Don’t mourn, organize,’ but you can do both at once, and you don’t have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots, call someone who’s upset, and check your equipment for going onward.
“A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.”
Yeah, I probably should have said something like that. Or what Kellie Carter Jackson wrote to her kids: “I prepared my children for a Harris win. I did not prepare them for her loss.”

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

One thought on “Lydster: the election”

  1. Thanks for this article Rog. I sent it to my daughter and granddaughter. And also my wife. All three of them were damn near suicidal after the election. I was surprised by my reaction. I thought I would be suicidal too, but I just said OK we lost so it’ll be four more years of anti-Trump diatribes

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial