Living Together Post-Election

 As I type this, election results are still unclear.  Polls indicated that this would not be such a tight race, but in the end we don't know until we know.  For the sake of our mental health, we have to work out a way forward for ourselves as individuals, as well as existing as Americans, no matter what the result is.

Thanks to Anne for pointing out this article  from the Global Sisters' Report. It is worth reading in it's entirety, but here are some thoughts from it:

"Everybody's thinking of this election in apocalyptic terms, that it's a choice between life and death," said Sr. Marcia Hall, vocation director of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. "I heard in the car this morning someone said it's a choice between law and order and capitalism or lawlessness and socialism."

"Whatever the results of the election, Americans will have to find a way to live together. And politicians won't solve all problems, several sisters told Global Sisters Report."

"...Sr. Ilia Delio, a Franciscan Sister of Washington, D.C., and author of books regarding cosmology and Catholicism, said there's "a real naiveté" of each side thinking their candidate's win means all shall be well."

"...Sr. Maribeth Larkin, the superior of the Sisters of Social Service, said U.S. politicians won't bridge political divides because that conflict is advantageous for them...Citizens can't find unity when their leaders are sowing division, she said.

"Sr. Barbara Nicholas, the president of the Loretto Community, wrote in an email to Global Sisters Report that in discussing the pre-election landscape with members of her community, a clear consensus emerged.  "We know what everyone knows: in our country, half of us will be relieved and very optimistic with the outcome; half of us will stand in disbelief that so many could have chosen this candidate," she wrote...."None of us wants to live during the next four years in fear, in dread that something awful will happen next to any of us."

"The antidote to the division, Delio said, is the lesson found in humanity's roots with nature. "Nature works symbiotically, cooperatively. It does new things. When the conditions are no longer optimal, it just finds ways to regroup, to work with new entities and to build new things," she said.

"We're self-annihilating because we don't trust," she said. "We don't just realize that the power of love still binds us together. ... Do we see it? Do we know it? Do we give thanks for the things that we have, the things we take for granted as we're trying to remake the world?"

"Conversations around kitchen tables and friend circles need to change entirely if Americans are to mend relationships," said St. Joseph of Philadelphia Sr. Carol Zinn...Those relationships require dialogue, not just talking past each other."

"...There has to be lot of room for empathy for the other's perspective, suspending judgment and trying to understand the other's perspective," Larkin said. "If we could have conversations that are not deeply embedded in our resentments, we could really listen and be open to understanding where the other is coming from. We're in this together"

"...Sr. Glenn Anne McPhee, a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, said with the pandemic and "glaring" social issues like racism and climate change, "people are raw." She sees it in herself: She said she has strong political leanings and often feels the need to step back and calm down when in discussion with those who think differently. But she said she always comes back to try to "hear where they are."

"Bridges will be necessary, Nicholas said, but "the bridges with one another that we as a country need to build begin with peace within ourselves. Building that inner peace is as difficult and as challenging as it is between countries; as it is between opposing political parties. Peace-building takes attention every day, and takes actions that flow from love of the neighbor as the self." ...She said the mass low-level depression plaguing Americans right now may be an invitation to slow down and appreciate the "virtue of enoughness," of friendship and belonging, of regaining a sense of pause and being, rather than frantically scanning the news."

"...Hall said she returns over and over to prayer. "People sometimes feel prayer is a cop-out response — 'just pray' — but this is deep prayer," ...She said the best things to do are get off social media, take mental health breaks and "remember to breathe. That sounds crazy, but you get so wound up, you forget to breathe."

"...McKenzie said it is in times of uncertainty, fear and darkness when God is moving in our lives....Be in that place of holding loosely and trusting in God, and then being open to the way God can work in you," she said. "The times just look really dark right now, but God works profoundly in those times."

As others have pointed out, the problems aren't going away, no matter who wins. We are still deeply divided, with racial and economic tensions, and of course the virus, causing deep anxiety and uncertainty.  What we have to do is learn a certain detachment, and take to heart Teresa of Avila's words;  

"Let nothing disturb you;

Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God,
finds he lacks nothing.
God alone suffices."

And I have to take my own words to heart.  I know I'm not in a very good place when I'm looking forward to a dentist appointment this morning because it will make me quit thinking about election anxiety for awhile.