The Upside (or) How to Carry On Into Tomorrow

 To begin, I won’t be patronizing you with any ‘to do tips' of positivity.  We all know the basics, and it’s getting darker outside every day here in America.  (Is it possible to overdose on calm mints?)  But this is where we are for now.  It feels as if we have no control over whether we’re going to be safe in our previously safe spaces.  This is Covid.  This is BLM tumult.  This is uncertainty in the U.S. and it has become the norm.  Is it our fault?  Yeah, some of it is but if you’re reading this then it’s not likely you’re high enough on the blame scale to really carry too much of the responsibility (no offence). 

 So for starters,  ( I said no ‘to do’ tips, so the following are firmly within the realm of ‘take action’ guidelines)....

1) Cut yourself some slack.  Are you among the group that  ‘Did not vote for this’, but did vote for him?  Then make sure you are personally a part of the fight against him!  You don’t have to pretend you’re something you’re not to try to right this boat.  Bring the discussion to your church, your neighbor, your family members.  Our party divisions are a part of the problem, but they don’t have to be.  Upside is you can repurpose your MAGA hat and use it as a collection tin, for starters.  Humility, it’s what's for breakfast.  

2) Cut that other guy some slack.  It’s done, and it shouldn’t have been but it is.  So here we all are, in the kiddy pool full of sewage wading side by side.  ( Note the ‘author’s choice’ to give you a sloshy poop filled inflatable pool as a visual.  I wanted it to be relatable. [ the pool, hopefully not the sloshy poop])  No one is going to be immune to what we have in store for us.  No one will feel free, most won't feel safe, and all will feel ashamed by what this country will become. And I’m sorry I’m stating this future as fact but optimism doesn’t delete reality.  Upside is I might be proven wrong.

3) Tomorrow will come.  With or without our contribution, it will come.  It’s most likely to be even darker tomorrow, and your contribution (like mine) will not be able to change it by much.  We can be a part of all of tomorrow's contributors, though.  And then we can contribute something the next day.  Do you write?  Please put it out there!  Draw?  Do it!  Are you rich?  Distribute them dollas!!!   Macrame?  Crank out those plant holders! The time to be timid is past us, put out the song you’ve been working on.  Our country needs us to be the best versions of who we are right now!  How can a macrame plant holder help America, you may quite reasonably be asking?  Never underestimate the value of a person’s time.  Anything done with passion has unique power.  Personal sacrifice is what Americans are known for!  The American dream has always come at some cost.   At this point the question of ‘what do I have to offer?’ needs to go hand in hand with ‘what do I have to lose?’. Upside is, the world will remember the fight the Americans put up, should our country go down.  And our plants will look nice.