If 2020 has been the longest year ever (and it certainly feels like it), then the last week has been the longest week ever. Everyone’s been used to elections being called within hours of the polls closing, so it figured that 2020 would change things up and make us learn once again the values of patience and persistence.
At 11:25AM on Saturday, the AP declared Pennsylvania for Biden/Harris and suddenly, everything changed. I cried. I smiled, too, but mostly I cried, releasing a depth of tension I hadn’t let myself truly admit over the last four years. I felt hope that America has decided on a new direction.
Instead of divisive rhetoric, chants of “lock them up” and dog whistles of racism, last night I listened to a man and a woman with specific goals, with energy to tackle our biggest problems in American, and hope that we can do those things. But most of all, what I heard was that we’re not perfect by any means, but we ARE stronger together than we are divided.
So as we move forward into this new morning, let us figure out how to talk to each other again. Let’s figure out how to dismantle structural racism, provide decent health care for everyone, and truly make America the shining light of liberty and hope we all want it to be.
Sit down with friends, with neighbors, with people you don’t really know. Let’s talk AND listen and figure out how to fix things. Some of it is spending time, some of it is donating to causes that work for social justice and changes, and some of it is listening to others speak their truths.
It won’t be easy. It won’t be fast. And it definitely won’t be perfect. I don’t know how we’ll do all of it. What I do know is that I’m ready to begin.
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
Mary Oliver