A ballot box and “I voted” stickers on a table inside the Warner Town Hall on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Will Steinfeld | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Life is trouble, and the universe doesn’t care whether you are content.
Feel better?
That’s one of the weirdest things about human psychology. All we do, all day long, is deal with one problem after another and yet we’re always a little bit surprised when something doesn’t go our way.
“But I ordered my cappuccino 10 minutes ago. Why isn’t it ready?”
It’s not ready because it isn’t. But we want to know why, we need to know why. The barista has made us a victim, and so the barista must answer for our pain.
That is how we roll.
This has been a tough week for a lot of people, but the truth is that your candidate lost because they did. If it makes you feel better to blame somebody or throw all of the people who voted against your candidate into the same bag with the same label, have at it at. But it changes nothing.
As for those of you on the “winning” side – and I put “winning” in scare quotes because a bunch of you voted for policies that will ultimately harm you just because you get a kick out of the messenger – your problems didn’t magically disappear on Tuesday. And even if one or two of them did – surprise! – there’s a couple of brand new ones waiting for you.
The cause of those new problems will be pinned on somebody else, but you’ll own them.
Some American politicians like to say “elections have consequences.” What they mean is, thanks for the vote, now beat it (but just until the midterms). The way they see it, voters bestow power that is meant to be fully wielded. The terms of that handshake agreement are often badly misconstrued by the newly powerful, however, which is one of the reasons why political parties fall in and out of favor in democratic republics.
Most people are not extremists, yet restraint is often one of the first casualties of political might.
I have no idea how things are going to play out in New Hampshire and the nation over the next months and years. The same would have been true no matter how the chips fell on Nov. 5. What’s also true is that, as I wrote the day before the election, what matters now is now, and all the days to come. Nothing ended at the polls, there were just a whole bunch of beginnings. And if the election results have got you down, I’m so very sorry to hear that. But don’t be a coward – and hopelessness is the same thing as cowardice.
If that sounds harsh, it isn’t meant to be.
Imagine you are a humanitarian volunteer in a developing nation where war and famine hang over the entire population like a pall. Monetary donations are in short supply, but that’s only the beginning of the problem. The supply lines are terrible, with bad roads and warlords making transport nearly impossible on even the best days. The people need food and health care desperately, but nothing grows out of the cracked earth and corruption keeps medicine from getting to the sick. In every direction, there is suffering without end.
You could go home if you want, that’s one option. I mean, who would blame you? The situation is terrible, will likely always be terrible, and there is no solution. There’s nothing left to do but gain some distance and watch it burn.
And, yet, that’s the one thing you’re most incapable of. You’re compelled, by your humanity, to work for something that will forever be out of reach.
You’re not sure why that is exactly, other than maybe the point isn’t to be served by a perfect world but to serve in an imperfect one.