Its impossible to deny that something will happen next month after our election has happened. I’ve been systematically numbing myself over it for years (since the last election, I suppose). Positive thinking is not my strong suit and my unmedicated mind can run away with my sense of peace. It’s catching up with me now. If I get out and knock on a few doors, can I still affect the tide?

Is this an unusual time in history? I’ve heard cases against it. They say that all of human history has felt unusual to the human’s living it. And that’s true. We are always doing something remarkable. Everyone has seen major tech advances appear like miracle solutions that later cause unforeseen problems. We’ve all seen catastrophic weather events that devastate small neighborhoods and prove the resilience of community. There are always injured humans who make a choice to injure others, and there are always humans who help heal.

Ultimately, does it matter if we’ve all lived times like this? We’re here now.

If writing in your diary as a young girl is a radical act, you are in an unusually uncertain time in history. I think that’s fair to say? Had things gone another way, instead of millions of middle schoolers reading the words of Anne Frank, we might have scooped the ashes of her pages into a trash bin. When Anne Frank was writing her words, she was a thirteen year old girl trapped in an attic with her family because people were trying to kill her. The same was true for countless other children. Anne’s story endured, whatever the circumstances, only because she told it. Without knowing what would become of it, Anne recorded her history. Her undeniable truth. The preservation of her way of life became an act of rebellion against the people attempting to erase her. I doubt she stopped to think if the people living 300 years before her had ever done something similar. Or maybe she did. I haven’t read it.¹

It’s interesting to me to think about the motivation of influential figures throughout history. Some purposefully set out to make change and others stumble into it. And no matter how one changes the course of history, they can’t know it at the time.² Does that mere fact endlessly fascinate anyone else?

We can’t know now what will endure from our story while we are still here in it, but I know what I am hoping for. I hope a reasoned approach to politics and a cohesive sense of humanity prevail. I hope whoever is elected uses their access to power, technology, and science to steady the earth in peaceful balance. I hope we learn from the mistakes we’ve made and that we are able to repair the divisions we’ve sown. I hope we learn quickly how to work together on a big problem with the singular goal of solving it for the whole.

1. But you better believe I own a copy. ↩︎
2. I think that’s what inspires my love of pattern. I imagine thats what gambling addicts are drawn to as well. The patterns of the horse race, or the slot machine, or what have you. The rush of accurately predicting an unlikely event. A payout as reward. In the case of history, I suppose the payout could take the shape of many things. The security and comfort of ones family, a social status to be proud of, financial prosperity. For me, the payout is the predictability itself. ↩︎