Posted on by Allison Marie Conway

America, the Beautiful and the Broken

I’m sipping my morning coffee while looking out my writing room window at the auburn trees set in patchwork design against a soft blue sky. And I can feel it. I can feel the beating hearts all across America as we wait for the election results to be announced officially, even as we know exactly what they are.

President Biden. Vice President Harris. This we know.

And just to type those words together sends a current of heat and comfort all through my being. The amount of anxiety, damage, and depression the last five years have caused us as individuals and as a collective society has been immeasurable.

We tried our best to soldier through it. It was not easy. It has been traumatizing and terrifying to watch and experience every. single. fucking. day. You cannot imagine it. Only living through it can teach you what it is like to realize how very much you have to lose and to feel helpless as you watch it being taken brutally, monstrously, intentionally, indifferently, cruelly.

But we turned toward each other. We found each other. We the ones who believe in decency, dignity, compassion, justice, equality, liberty.

We came together and we turned our pain into action and we voted out the insidious evil. It will not be enough, of course. There is still much deep soulful, ugly, and difficult work to be done. An activist I adore said it this way: we have cut off the head of the Hydra, but we need to get to the heart.

For me, I have become so much more clear. Much more aware of the trouble we face as a nation and a world, and also aware of what it will take to fix it. We are the leaders we need. We are the healers. We are the spirit and the answer.

But for this moment in time, as we hold each other at the dawning of a new day, a new season of hope, I am feeling so many things at once. Relief. Gratitude. Overwhelming gratitude for the kind and decent and hardworking citizens of our nation who made sure the election was executed smoothly, methodically, safely.

But the biggest thing I am feeling now is love. Love for all of the people in my life who rallied and worked to secure this major epic victory. Love for a country which is broken but trying like hell to heal.

And you feel it even deeper still when you know you earned it. Chose it. Fought day after day after excruciating day for it. Together. Just like we will have to keep doing, forever.

 

.

 

Photo by Jakob Owens

17 Replies to “America, the Beautiful and the Broken”

  1. Hear! Hear!

    The same current of heat and comfort is being felt across the world. At the same time it’s scary to see that almost 50% of voters believed in his views. It will be a tough road for Joe & Kamala to unite everyone. But finally, there is a sense of relief.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. It is a major global moment, for sure. And I fully agree with all you share here, thank you so much for sharing it. It is so important to recognize the tough reality we face, so that we can get about moving forward. ❤ Maybe rest for five minutes first though. 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  4. We heard Biden’s PA victory called shortly before driving to Lake Tahoe. Before we left I watched scenes of people across the nation dancing in the streets with perfect strangers in the middle of a pandemic and it was beautiful. I’d only previously viewed these kinds of scenes in old newsreels of cities that had just been liberated from the Nazis. My mother who lived in Italy during the war had told me about the celebration in Rome when the Allies rolled into the city.
    In Tahoe we drank Champagne, toasted the end of the reign of terror and wore out Kool and the Gang’s Celebration while watching the first snowfall of the season.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I love everything about what you say here, thank you so much for sharing all of this, Paulie. I have heard these comparisons, too, about the dancing in celebration of liberation. I was so proud of my city, Philly was all love that night. We have felled the face of fascism. Cheers. ❤

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: