How Love Can Still Win

The overwhelming feeling I have right now is hopelessness. It’s been growing this whole week, long before any election results were in and it has hit a fever pitch tonight.

It’s no secret, if you’ve been following this blog, who I voted for, but I think hatred and vitriol has been seen on both sides of the aisle. Yes, Donald Trump himself has demonstrated more of this. We’ve seen it at his rallies, we’ve seen it on his Twitter feed, and we’ve seen it in his policies. But Clinton supporters can’t be let off the hook. Hatred and a refusal to understand has been seen on the blue side too.

We’ve done what we can for the presidential election and for our states. We will have a winner, and more and more it’s looking like the orange man won. I’m not interested in him. Frankly, if Hillary pulls this out (and I hope to God she does), I’m not interested in her.

What I am interested in, is you. You have a choice to let love win. We will have little say in policy. We will have little say in what happens in government after today. We will have much say in how we respond to our brothers and sisters and friends somewhere in between. Take time this week to bake cookies for your neighbor, smile at someone on the street, or ask someone, sincerely, how their day was.

Reach out across the aisle and ask questions, not to be right or to be wrong, not with assumptions or with your preconceived notions, but to genuinely ask what their worries are. Who do you they hate and why? How do they feel about America and why? What do your hopes and dreams for the country look like?

You no longer have a say on which party wins the election. You do still have a say on whether love or hate will win. You still have to decide, right now, whether we can heal or whether we will burn. Love can still win. I have to believe that; I choose to believe that. Whether you voted for Trump or for Clinton, you can decide whether or not love will win.