Post-Election Thoughts...

The term Wicked Wednesday has never been more apt.
 
I find myself wondering if sexy pictures even matter in the world I woke up in today. I suspect they still do but I wanna get this out first.
 
Trump is president. I can’t even believe I’m typing those words.
 
I knew Hillary wasn’t popular – hell, I didn’t like her either – but given the choice between a seasoned politician and a reality show? I didn’t think that choice would be so hard.
 
The more worrying thing proven by this election, however, is the American level of insularity. We Americans have shown how much we fear change and that we would prefer to lock our doors and block our borders and hope we can return to a mythical “easier” time when definitions were simple. When American presidents were white(ish) and marriage meant a man and a woman, when there were only two bathroom signs and when boys could be boys behind closed doors with no harm to their public reputations.
 
But this isn’t a thing. Trump will be able to do a lot of things, like make us the talking point of the world stage and cause every American traveler to suffer through the question “WFT just happened to your country??”, but he will not be able to put all Americans back in the closet. He doesn’t have that power.
 
The world is connected. We are connected. No one person can tell us how to act and who to fuck and who to love. We’ve come out of that dark place and we won’t go back.
 
But somehow we all have to wake up to the world as it actually is. We Americans need to learn to see our country as a multi-colored lusty community of humans, some of whom vote for Trump and others who want to visit Mexico. We need to accept that this is America and stop yearning to live in a country where everyone agrees with us.
 
I’m included in this group.  
 
I clearly live in a country where a man I disrespect who horrifies me can be elected to the highest office. But I'm the minority. It will take me some time to figure out how absorb that. How to accept that my view of the world has also been insular and padded by people who agree with my views. That I too am intolerant and out of touch with people who don’t agree with me.
 
There are deeply disappointed and heartbroken people in our nation this morning. And there are those who feel like it’s Christmas morning and they’ll finally get everything they’ve always wanted. Their disappointment and heartbreak is coming because no one gets everything they want.
 
We all have to wake up to reality. This is it. We are a nation of vast differences and we are not helped by wanting all the tolerance for ourselves while refusing to give tolerance to anyone who disagrees with us.
 
We are all connected. To each other. That reality will be a harsh mistress for the next four years. So, we all have a job to do. All of us Americans.
 
We need to learn to live with each other.