osodecanela | Didn’t expect that... (Reply)

So I woke up this morning, opened the news on my phone and found nothing yet announced. After 20 minutes or so, I got outta bed & trotted off to the kitchen to make b’fast for us both. I turned on a podcast and went about my business. Didn’t see my husband’s text, a few minutes after I started with the dishes from last night, as the coffee pot started to drip out this morning’s dose of caffeine. Nor did my husband say anything when I walked in with the b’fast tray.

An hour and a quarter after the AP called the election for Biden, after declaring he had successfully taken Pennsylvania, LJ remarked, “my friend just texted from New York that people are out celebrating and dancing in the streets. Oh and it’s 70° there.“ I countered with, “why? And what the hell, it’s 70°!“

“Apparently you didn’t see my text.“

“What text?“

“Um, they’ve called the election. Biden has won.”

The moment or so later I felt a single tear snaking its way down my right cheek and disappearing into my beard. I had thought of many ways I’d react to the news of Trump’s loss. I hadn’t expected a single tear today to be my actual response.

I am feeling a profound sense of relief, not that we as a country don’t have a tremendous amount of work to do. This is just the beginning. Our polarization as a nation is far from over. While it appears there is a growing acceptance that the nightmare of a Trump presidency is now about to end, the undoing of all the damage that he has wrought to our government and our nation still remains to be addressed.

Moreover, I am sitting here watching people in T-shirts & tank tops out celebrating in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, while thinking it’s November. 70° in New York City is markedly abnormal for this time of year. I’m sitting in the heart of what’s supposed to be a temperate rainforest, one where the rains should have begun 2 to 3 weeks ago, yet we remain dry. My heart is lighter now than in much of the last 4 years. Though I see people out in the streets celebrating, I cannot help but focus on the reality of what we have done to this climate and how much worse it has gotten under the stewardship of this interloper, that’s about to get evicted from the People’s house. I’ll let others go out to celebrate for me and not begrudge them. Somehow, I’m not much in the mood to celebrate at the moment.

It still will be 2 1/2 months, before this man, this scourge, this sad excuse for a human being, is actually out of a position of power. Like a wounded creature, I have fear over what further damage he might wreak in that time left. Who will he pardon? What will he steal? What new norms will he break? How will he attempt to impede the new administration coming in? What will his enabler‘s do to support him?

If you’ll forgive the metaphor, how I feel at the moment is best described as someone who has had an enormous boil lanced. The immediate pressure is relieved and the poisonous debris is finally streaming out. For the moment, I’m feeling better, though I know the healing process is far from over. There will be pain to come; part of the healing process. But just like an abscess, it must be tended to to be certain it heals properly, so not close prematurely and thus recur.