What’s next?

Right now, the nation is split… on one side, we have a group that is insistent that they will still win. They are, and rightly so, waiting for all the votes to be counted. And in that wait, they remind everyone that they probably did win and, besides, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over!” 

On the other side, we have a group that says, “Go home. Give it up. It’s over and you lost. Don’t bother with those other votes. In fact, don’t count them – that should be illegal!”

See what I did there? I just divided an entire country into two very polarized groups… but that’s not really us, is it? Sure, it plays better… looks better on the TV or online. The great “Us vs. Them” (never mind the fact that both groups may ultimately unite, once and for all, as they perish in the same hospitals, until people wear masks and take the pandemic seriously.)

Wherever the country stands now, wherever it stands tomorrow… wherever it stands in three weeks, hope does not live and die by that standing. Yes, we have to turn our focus on human rights. Racism is real (face it, this country was built on it.) Bigotry, bias, hate… all also very real. And watching decisions motivated by one group’s desire to prohibit or make illegal the rights of another group is just… sad. It should be beneath us, but we are seeing, more and more, that there’s a lot of things beneath us that are there and always have been.

But this isn’t really about that. This is about the idea of hope. Hope should not hinge upon a single moment. The election is not – and cannot be – the fulcrum on which all the hope of all time rests. 

Nor should hope be viewed as something reserved exclusively for one group or another. Remember, we are many groups. And, in the vast expanse of space, we are one. So, let’s not get conned into being just the two, one against the other.

Hope springs eternal. It must. But that wellspring isn’t fed by external forces… it’s within. When we see the best of us, it’s powered by an internal source that believes, that knows, that there is better. 

Don’t see this moment – whatever the moment is right now or whenever you read this – as the end-all, be-all moment.

Be better. Do better. 

It all starts within. 

Find hope. Believe in that hope. 

Until the next moment comes.

Then, and I have to give it up for George Lucas here, because I never really took a shine to his renaming “Star Wars” (what I call “Star Wars”, which is the movie I saw in 1977, when I was 10 years-old on opening weekend) because “Episode IV” always just bugged me. Calling it that irked me. But now, I’m going to take heed from it…

When the next moment comes, find a new hope.