If election gravity's got you down

How to survive until Tuesday

Photo by Josh Barwick on Unsplash

Over the next few days, I know that many of us—maybe all of us—will be feeling a great deal of anxiety over Tuesday’s election, its possible outcomes, and the potential aftermaths. I’m sure I’m not alone in losing sleep over the daily onslaught of news and polling alerts. And I am sure this is true no matter what one’s political leanings are or which way you may vote. This overly long and relentless election season has been hard on all of us.

To get through the next few days, may I suggest that we ask ourselves three questions, and I’ll dare to go even further and suggest some answers:

What is my anxiety trying to tell me? It may be that in this case, anxiety is the teacher, reminding us that we are thoughtful, loving beings who deeply care about our world and the people in it. It’s reminding us that we are in fact fully alive. If we didn’t care, we would feel nothing.

If we are numbed to the pain, that’s not the same as feeling nothing. This, too, may be a healthy sign that we still feel, but our emotional immunity system has kicked in and is simply trying to protect us. It is that same system of busy neural pathways that assures that our resiliency will regroup and return, and we will feel once again the interconnectedness of all beings wrapping its arms around us.

What do I do with my fears? Speaking for myself, I regard my spirituality as a container that holds absolutely everything: the things that give my life meaning and my faith in a universal love, but also my constant questioning, outrage at injustice, and yes, my fears. I sometimes forget that my fears aren’t the only parts of me dwelling in that infinite invisible room where the entire universe resides. I sometimes forget that my fears are greatly outnumbered by all the goodness in my life. When I remember, I am at peace. No matter which way an election goes, the good in us does not go away.

What does my reason bid me to do? Ah. Your sense of reason, which seeks to bring order to chaos, to make sense of the nonsensical, has probably been going haywire. To this I say: suspend operations. Let faith hold you. Granted, neither faith nor prayer swings elections our way. That’s not what faith or prayer are for. They are not interveners but sustainers, something far more valuable.

All of which to say: Let your faith in yourself and your fellow human beings carry you through. Because the only thing you know for sure in this moment is that they and you are going to be there on the other side of whatever unfolds. Tuesday will come and go. The overriding power of our collective love will still be here, and always will.

I offer this as but one perspective, cautioning that it is the view of an aging baby boomer who wishes the world he was promised as a child were the one we were living in now. Personally, I am full of hope that the current chaos will give way to order, as has happened across millennia. Maybe it won’t happen as soon as we would like or in the way that we would like. Or maybe it will. Either way, it is inevitable that we will get there one day, driven by the continued and relentless growth of the majority of love. In all of history, hate has only disrupted. Love has always sustained. I know which team I want to be on. And it has my vote.