Today is interesting. Not because I shocked all who know me by not wearing my Ben Carson hat or t-shirt or a combination thereof. But because it's a day full of what we can and cannot control.
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| It's important to have not one, but two, of this exact t-shirt... |
I've never really been very interested in politics, but 2016 has been full of adventure. I saw my grandmother, who usually walks while holding someone's elbow, sprint at a speed that might have left my daughter (who has received several athletic scholarship offers to join college sprinting teams) in the dust, in order to secure a front and center seat to see her "boyfriend Ted Cruz" in person. My husband and grandmother and I all were Republican state delegates, and wonder of all wonders, I was super-pumped to be surprised by Ben Carson speaking one morning, because he wasn't on the agenda!!! I might have hollered louder cheering for Ben than I did in 1991 when I saw the New Kids on the Block in concert. Yeah, I'm pretty sure of that... And my hair was less wide than in '91, so I'm winning on all fronts. My 2nd grade daughter developed a remarkable Donald Trump impression, and got to see him speak, which was underwhelming to her. She felt that his choice of power ballads playing during the pre-speech minutes was objectionable. But we all remarked that his hair was much more normal in person. Well relatively speaking. Who'd have thought?!
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| Ted, appearing very much like he is about to plant one on Meem. |
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| Ben, trying to talk over my shouting and applause. |
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| Meet, the great unifier. |
We're super fortunate to live in a country where we can participate in choosing our leaders. I've prefaced too many remarks to count with "Well, since Ben isn't on the ballot." I didn't get to vote for my favorite candidate, but I did vote for the one I felt most closely representing the things I feel are important. That was all I could control.
Today is one of those "it will be what it will be" sort of days. I've joked about moving to Texas to secede (was I joking? Or was that just an excuse to shop at Magnolia Market in person....?). And there are things I'm concerned about that definitely aren't to joke about. I think everyone on both sides of the aisle feels that way.
One of the saddest things I've witnessed this year has been the unkindness among friends, the judgmental words especially from one Christian to another. That's been heavy to watch. Social media makes it so easy to dialogue or to argue viciously. I've been reading the Chronological One Year Bible this year (so love!!), and the past bit of time I've been reading the Gospels and it's been all about Jesus' life and time on earth. And I love about him that he is so good at knowing how to avoid useless arguing and so good at knowing how to clearly explain things when someone wants to actually know something from him. Sometimes I'd read and be all, "Ohh, that's probably something I need to do better..."
My dad often has said, "It's not what happens to you, it's what happens in you in response to what happens to you that counts." (He's wise as well as adorable. That's just a killer combination. And don't forget the Irish accent.)
I hope that tomorrow morning when we all wake up and feel whatever we feel about the next president, something good and powerful will be happening in us in response to that. Once we've cast our vote, we've done what we can for this election, but we can control a lot about our country even after tomorrow, no matter how it all comes down. Granted, we may need to drive to northern Maine to look at the smiling miniature sheep my father-in-law just told me about today (and which I obviously need to have at the farm) to lower the blood pressure. But after that, we move forward.
This election is winding to a close. We cannot control the White House. We cannot control terrorism. We cannot control the economy. There's a lot we can't control. And the important thing tomorrow is that we don't get stuck in that part of the truth. I want to stand alongside my people - the ones who see the world like I do and the ones who don't - and I really want us to be for each other. What happens in us in response to what this election says is happening to us is our power that nobody can take away. It's our truth. It's a gift we give ourselves and one another.
