Wow, what an intense week its been! Last Tuesday the polls in the US were open for the last day, then we hung in limbo for days that felt like weeks, finally, on Saturday the election was called for Biden Harris. The number of emotions I experienced in the last seven days was immense.
When I got up on Wednesday at 7am my heart sank, Trump had won Florida AND Texas. Texas wasn’t too much of a surprise and, truth be told, neither was Florida, however my stomach churned as I processed the thought: ‘What if he stays in office for four more years?’. My tumbling insides stayed for the next three days as I monitored the results.
Saturday, my husband and I made a pact to not check the news, to carry-on with life. We removed the fallen leaves from the garden, we made lunch for our family, I met with a friend for tea and conversation, I walked around my beloved city observing the people, the shop windows, the improvised food and drink offerings now that we’re in ‘lock down light’. Then I went to pick up my son from a playdate. My son’s friend’s dad said, ‘Congratulations!’ when he greeted me. I was dumbstruck, what was he talking about? I asked, ‘Congratulations for what?’. He said, ‘Biden Harris just won!’. I felt a bit like a footballer, I bent my knees, raised my arms, looked up at the sky and shouted, ‘Yes!!!!’. I experienced a flood of relief and giddy excitement at the thought of no more President Trump.
Once we were home I felt like I’d run a marathon. I hadn’t realised how much I’d been holding: tension in my muscles, my breath, my gut, my ‘what if’ plan in case Trump won. I sat on the couch and watched videos of the US celebrating. The most touching were the parties on the streets of NYC, especially the crowd that gathered in Washington Square Park a place I frequented when I lived in the East Village. I could feel the joy and relief radiating from those videos, from the collective ‘woo hoo’ coming from the millions of people who voted remove The Orange Thing.
There is so much work do to still, and my wish is that we do not become complacent now that Biden is the President-Elect. John Oliver (and his team) summed up the election and the status of the country well on Sunday (see link below for full video):
Dividing American based on race, religion, gender and national origin has frequently been very much who we are. (…) We can not and should not ignore that millions voted for Trump. Meaning, they either actively supported his bigotry or at the very least were comfortable enough with it to vote for him anyway, which isn’t great. (…) The last four years were not about just one man, and this isn’t just about the last four years, and even that one man is by no means going away. (…) The real take away of this election might be, there is no easy answer to the question of ‘who we are’.
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyC855KdBKo
ILLUSTRATION: Exhale by Christoph Niemann https://www.christophniemann.com/
