Suit Up and Show Up
Nobody died. But it feels like a tragedy of major proportions. We have a president-elect who has openly expressed contempt for women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, disabled people and LGBTQ folks. What have we done? How do we respond to this?
I honestly don’t know, but I have some thoughts in this first 18 hours or so of pondering. My first reaction was that I don’t know if I can live in a country so hateful. Sometime around 2:30am the sky was bright, and I looked out several windows for the quarter moon I expected to see.
Instead I saw the sky filled with stars, unusual in the middle of Des Moines. The view of Orion’s bow and arrows gave me my first glimmer of hope.
Somehow this morning I was still hoping to wake from a nightmare. But the stomach ache was real. What to do?
I got out of bed, put on my walking clothes and went for a walk. The sunrise was beautiful; the autumn colors magnificent. I decided my best response is to suit up and show up. Get dressed and do the work as best I can. Every day.
We will need to take bigger steps as citizens if our country is to survive in any semblance of peace, fairness and justice. Take it local. Stand up for people who have way more at stake than I do. Be fierce, but diplomatic. Be a nasty woman, but with grace.
[…] night, the election results rolled in, and my dreams of a woman president rolled out. The night sky was a stunner as well. However, unlike the election results, the stars gave me a […]