Personal Connection is How We Will Heal From This Election

Wow. Honestly I feel like that is all I can say right now is wow. Everywhere I go people are talking about this election. People are really angry and people are really scared. It seems to me that the media is fanning the fuel of anger right now and social media can take it over the top. I certainly don’t want to minimize people’s anger and the reasons behind it but I am concerned about how it will permeate into other aspects of our lives and how we will somehow all move forward after this election is over.

I feel sad that this is what American Politics has come to. It used to be that we all had our parties and we supported them and hoped they won but we had some respect for those on the other side of the aisle. This has been falling to the wayside for the last eight years and has reached a critical point right now. I have heard multiple friends say they don’t want their children around people that support certain candidates. Relationships are becoming acrimonious or even ending.

Prior to this election politics and elections were rarely discussed in my counseling room. Now it is talked about all the time. I hear fear and anger there too. And I don’t have answers to that. All I can do myself and advise others to do is to take care of yourself the best you can. For different people that may be different things like not watching news, or limiting contact with people that support the other candidate, or becoming active in the campaign you support. But people feel helpless and that is a very challenging place to be.

Now I digress for a moment (hang in there I will make my point) but yesterday during a break in my work I wandered over to the bookstore. It is dangerous for me to have an office near a bookstore but it is also a place I like to wander. It calms me. As I perused the books an older gentleman came into the aisle and was grumbling about not finding the book he was looking for. I will be honest in the past, as an introvert I probably just would have nodded politely and moved on. But I have been pushing myself to try and connect more when opportunities arise. This gentlemen then mentioned the author he was looking for and I said oh you find him over in the fiction and literature section not here, because I read him too and that’s where I found him. He wandered off and then returned having found his book. We then compared notes on that series and then several others we both enjoy. He told me he was 92 and about the challenges of aging. He told me how old his kids were and I joked I could be one of his grand kids. He then told me about his grand kids and great grand kids. We continued to talk as we went to pay and he told me about his service in WWII. It was a very enjoyable interaction for me and I hope for him.

The reason I share this story (told you I would return to the point) is that it helped me recognize that human connection is what we continue to really need. I don’t know who that man is going to vote for but I do know we like the same books and I enjoyed talking to him. It actually made my day. I think as we move forward post election it is important to remember this. We can still almost always find ways to connect with others, even those we disagree with. And the healing will only happen if we try and do that and try to both connect and really listen. Try to hold on to that as we move towards November 8th and beyond.

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