Everyone,
well... at lot of people, and a lot of people in various religious
communities, are writing about the election, so probably I shouldn't.
But, never being one to allow rules or logic to stop me, I'm going to anyway.
Yesterday
at work I was a mess. I came home last night and locked myself in,
and couldn't make myself go out again for any reason. I had cereal
for dinner because that is all I had in the house. I wasn't even willing to go to the grocery store, and
it's downstairs. I turned off a show I usually like because they were
doing an episode about computer hackers taking over an election. It made
my stomach hurt.
Sometimes
something happens that is not quite a miracle, but it is the exact
right thing at the exact right time that lets you know God is peeking
out from behind the curtain (like the Wizard in the Emerald City) and pushing something in front of you
that you ought to pay attention to. I had one of those Divine
Coincidences happen to me today.
I
was looking for some comfort music to go along with my comfort food
of choice, today chocolate. I listened to every version of Leonard
Cohen's "Hallelujah" I could find, and there are a lot of
them. Then I moved on to Mahalia Jackson, Joshua Nelson, and Debbie
Friedman. Finally I randomly stumbled across a song from the Color
Purple soundtrack, "Maybe God is Trying to Tell You Something (Speak Lord)".
I
listened to it a couple of times. And in addition to helping me get
through the day, it occurred to me that maybe God was
trying to tell me something.
You
probably already know this, but the popular vote in the election was
split almost exactly 50/50 with Hillary Clinton actually getting a
few hundred thousand more, 59,938,290
votes to Donald Trump's 59,704,886. Neither candidate got more than
50 percent of the vote: As of noon Wednesday, Clinton stood at 47.7
percent and Trump at 47.5 percent.
(http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/09/501393501/shades-of-2000-clinton-surpasses-trump-in-popular-vote-tally)
Hillary Clinton will become the fifth U.S. presidential candidate to
win the popular vote but lose the election.
Here's the thing I realized: No matter who won, approximately 50% of the people were going to be pissed. And I'll be honest with you, I'd rather it was Hillary's half since I don't think they're as well armed. That's just my opinion and I have been wrong about such things... from time to time.
But just knowing that 50% of the people didn't vote to have me (and a lot of other folks) killed (or some other Really Bad Thing) gave me at least a glimmer of hope. I think that is the something that God was trying to tell me. So I'm going to blow on that little, tiny glimmer however I can and trust it will be a spark that will someday turn into a roaring fire of sanity.
I actually went out to services tonight to pray for that. I'm going to put my faith in the Divine: that God will let me know when it is no longer safe to stay in my home country. I will hope and pray that that realization never comes to me.
But since God helps those who help themselves, I'm also going to keep my eye on the cheese. And stuff a few dollars under the mattress and not let my passport expire.
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Some random articles:
Not at all religious:
http://thebloggess.com/2016/11/08/its-going-to-be-okay/
But a good read in its own way and it includes this comment: “For those who could use some support, text 741741. Free, confidential, anonymous. There may be some slower response times than the usual < 5 minutes, but crisis counselors are doing an amazing job responding to such a huge influx. LGBTQ, people of color, assault survivors, differently abled, other religions – ANYONE feeling overwhelmed about what this means for you? Feeling alone, anxious, maybe even in despair? There is help. Sending you love. Just in case anyone reading this needs help tonight or another night.”
Religious:
