It’s Day Three of navigating Election Day 2024 trauma, and I am in mourning. That’s the best analogy I can conceive for my state of mind, heart and spirit. I’d been experiencing such a strange and wonderful feeling since the Harris / Walz campaign ignited their campaign of infectious joy and hope. A feeling that akin to the glory days of the Obama administration—and was eviscerated on Election Day 2024.
Yes, I’m a big fan of Joe Biden. I’m in awe that he managed to shepherd the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Infrastructure Act amidst such divisiveness—not to mention Pandemic-fueled inflation. All of this legislation brought clean energy jobs and projects, along with projects to increase climate resiliency. I celebrate each miracle.
But I still felt like I was holding my breath during his entire term, knowing the seeds of distrust and discontent being sown far and wide, seeds that ultimately sprouted the decisive win for Donald Trump and Project 2025 last Tuesday.
I let down my despairing guard for those three glorious months of the Harris campaign, reveled in joy-scrolling through messages of hope and positivity. I believed kindness, compassion, and hope would win over hatred and hostility.
It was not to be. Not in this election, anyway.
And that’s what hurts the most. That’s what I mourn. That brief moment in which we celebrated caring for one another more than intolerance. At least, I did.
I’m tempted to go back to blaming God, as I recount in the “I’m Mad at God” chapter of my new book, Madness on the Brink of Eco-Apocalypse. Have we been set up to fail? Because it sure seems like compassion and tolerance are a hard, make that, an impossible sell for more than half the people in this country.
But this morning, my own words came back to haunt me. I recalled what I wrote in Love Earth Now, published during the first Trump administration. At the end of that book, I outlined a set of marching instructions for myself, steps for navigating the Bad News for Life on Earth. This is Step 4:
“Entrust and Thank. Entrust any problem that is outside my immediate control to those whose soul work it is to address. Seven billion humans* share this planet now, with a couple hundred thousand more arriving every day. We are each instilled with our own soul work to accomplish. Flood with gratitude all who honor the calling of their soul, especially those who never make the headlines.
Love Earth Now
This eco-worrier felt relieved after I penned that because I do tend to think it’s all mine to mend. I was so eager to entrust the myriad of problems I could not address to those whose own souls called them to act.
But the next part still haunts me:
“For advanced work, extend a word of gratitude for those whom I deem responsible for the perceived travesty. They play an essential role in rousing us to the urgings of our souls.”
Love Earth Now
Uggggh, no no no no no no. I cannot extend gratitude to someone who wants to dismantle every environmental protection we have—even as these are not enough to stave off the eco-crises we continue to face. I CANNOT.
“The notion of extending gratitude to the miscreants whom I hold responsible for the tragedy I’m bemoaning raises the hairs on the back of my neck. Which means that there may be some merit in it. But for that story about orangutans orphaned by rain forest clear cutting, I might never get off Facebook. I might never do the research to learn whether my snack du jour contains rain forest-destroying palm oil. I might never write that email to the manufacturer urging a change. I might never stop to speak a prayer of gratitude for those on the frontlines, working to protect some of our closest relations.
I still find this task as unpleasant as cleaning hair out of the shower drain, but then,
as my hypnotherapist friend Loren says, “this work is not for sissies.” “
Love Earth Now
And so, with great revulsion, I am forcing myself to face this awful truth, once again: we humans often need a serious kick in the pants sometimes to get up off the couch and get shit done.
Except this time, it feels like I’ve suffered a kick in the face. A knockout punch to my heart.
Which only raises the stakes a millionfold.
Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll accept the result of this election as yet another URGENT call to action. I’ll get back to doing what I can, when I can, however I can. I’ll even up the ante, do more than I thought I could before.
But not today.
Right now, I’m still in mourning and, though I’m not Jewish, I plan to embrace my own interpretation of their tradition of sitting shiva for seven days. Give myself sufficient reflective and restorative time to process my grief, replenish my depleted banks of hope, and pray into knowing this is truly All on Purpose.
Even if I had to vomit into the trash can under my desk after writing that.
*Humans now number 8.2 billion.
