Rise and Shine!

America is a little healthier today, the day after election returns. This first election wasn’t important for being political. It was essentially a dose of personal tonic. Democracy loving Americans and their international friends drew a long, deep breath of hope that a day is coming when disagreement won’t threaten detention…when pride in our capacity for compassion is normalized…when the integrity of the American people will rule. In other words, Americans dared to taste optimism again.

Hope can keep people alive, strengthen efforts, and highlight even small achievements as worthy. Hope helps us battle disease, injury, disappointments, and depression. Feeling good about the prospects for the future enhances those prospects. Our bodies love to feel happiness. Hope is a tiny sparkle that may overwhelm the dark if we can ensure its power.

No one can say what the future will bring after this day, but at last we can temper our fears about destruction with dreams of a transformation. We’re standing on the shoulders of ancestors whose brave contributions were as diverse as the ancestors were themselves. We often took their struggle for granted, assuming the task of a better life was complete. Wrong. There is no finish line. We must continually act as the earth family we are to save ourselves and our planet, regardless of our differences. We know now that our global population needs many kinds of people and many perspectives to thrive. We can prioritize fulfilling life over empty material gain and egotistical contests of war and domination in which only leaders win and the spoils are temporary. We can celebrate the exquisite joy of living instead of replacing it with technology and human isolation. Perhaps we can work together as ethical, mature neighbors to refresh our world for everyone. Perhaps.

Our dreams will not automatically materialize no matter what happens next. What has changed with this election was not magic, nor will the next election be magic, regardless of the results. Cruelty, prejudice, and control will still be powerful forces. We know vibrant life includes forms that aren’t human, as well—animals, plants, the land, the sea. Animals practice empathy in rebuke of our selfishness. We have almost inconceivable work to do to move forward without being seduced into the self-serving dark corners within international society, but that’s nothing new. The hard part is we’re charged with seeing the big picture instead of simply what we need for today, and we need to perceive the entire spectrum of human participation when we’re not used to looking up from our individual problems. We’ve already witnessed where we don’t want to go. That’s a start.