It's been hard to know what to write in the last several weeks. I live in an area where most of the adults (and children) were supporting Hillary Clinton, and we all spent more time than I think any of us individually expected recovering from her stunning non-victorious winning of the popular vote in the election. There are so many ways that people are saying that we can get involved, but after all the fake news, it's hard to know what's a real opportunity, and what may be distracting propaganda.
And it's all propaganda, isn't it? The PEOTUS is making "decisions" that seem arbitrary and certainly not in the best interest of the country, so to distract the electorate from that, he's tweeting wildly about SNL, China, Russian hacking, that's he's smart enough not to need daily intelligence briefings, Vanity Fair magazine, Chuck Jones, etc. Then , the media veers off the report on those distractions, and he nominates oil barons who have been awarded the highest non-citizen honor from RUSSIA to be our SoS. What? WHAT?
WHAT?????????????
I just...I just can't. Meanwhile, we hurtled through the first Thanksgiving as a country as divided as 1860, and now on to the holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas. and we're still pretty tentative. I worry about violence popping the bubble around my home, even though it seems hilariously far-fetched. You know what else sounded far-fetched? Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination for the presidency. Also, Donald Trump winning the election. And yet, hilariously, both those things came to pass regardless of how hard he seemed to be trying to NOT be president.
So what now? When I was a child, we watched the news nightly as a family. I am not sure I want my kids to watch the news because what if it isn't actually the news? How will they grow up learning to be citizens of the United States, and of the world, if I can't show them reliable information about the state of the country and the world? They are already children of the internet - how can I show them that most of what they find on the internet is wildly inaccurate?
And how can I do all these things, on top of the already Denali-esque pile of things-to-do I have daily anyway?
So, while these rocks tumble around in my head, I've been quiet. Because I'm pretty sure we ALL wonder how to parent and live and survive this spectacular showcase. It is, in fact, tremendous. Never once in my life did I think I would live in a time of such division and anger. It forces me to consider - will we ever be post-racism? Post-afraid-of-people-not-like-us? Post-anything? Or ultimately, are we all more closed off than we ever considered, and at the end of each day it's are MY people safe?
I dunno. It's a lot to consider. For now, mostly, I just try to be nice to everybody. Except at the people who drive poorly. Them I yell at.
