What my grandmother said about struggle was, “We walked to school for miles in the snow.”
What my mother said was, “You are lucky to be a woman now.”
What we say now is, “It’s never been this bad.” On the other hand…
Remember a time when you weren’t constantly anxious?
Remember a time when a stomachache was a stomachache and a headache was a headache? And you didn’t blame the government? It was probably something you ate?
Remember when you didn’t plan how to manage your stress on election night, the way a survivalist plans for the end of the world?
This election has brought to a head what was there all along. America was simmering. Now it is boiling.
What do you miss the most? Is it the not-knowing how troubled our country was? The blissful ignorance about what lay beneath…
Is it the boredom of feeling nothing? Days when it felt like nothing was wrong?
Do you miss the confidence that the winner of the election will be somebody who cares about people even if you disagree?
If you’ve lived a life without anxiousness until now, you’re one of the lucky ones. Or, you were one who happily lived with your head buried deep in the sand.
