It's Like Mordor Out There

"It's like Mordor out there and at some point we are going to have to travel through it." 

Tegan— 

It's a very dark day here in Vermont, weather-wise, metaphorically, and metaphysically. My daughter, Tegan, is right. It's like the dark clouds of Mordor have spread and we are entering the third volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. It's left me thinking of how I might better have approached the trolls, orcs, black riders, Balrogs, and assorted "men enslaved by Rings of Power",  and the dark lord himself, Sauron. I'm thinking of one particular former sister-in-law who was actively trolling me on social media who perhaps I should have addressed directly instead of "unfriending", that's avoidance versus communication. Then I recall how even when she was a young adult, instead of gifting used clothing to nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity's Restore, she would throw them out saying "They need to work for these like I did." Conversation didn't work then and hasn't in the years since. It is indeed disheartening to think that the majority of the population voted with her.

And yet, the results of the election did not surprise me. In many ways, I was emotionally anticipating it: last night I could not watch the election night updates, I did not check social media, I did not consume alcohol knowing it would make me more depressed the next day, and I sent a care package earlier in the week to younger cousins as I knew it could hit hard.

I've worked around the world towards ending gender inequity and violence. I've been in places in the world where culture does not obscure poverty, misogyny, racism, and classism. And I've long experienced and recognized this in our own country. The '60s in America had seemed like a promise of a different world and yet what has become more obvious as those generations have aged is that we are instead a nation divided, unmoored by consumerism, technology, lack of education, and fear, doubling down on "Me First and F-CK You". Our community moral compass has lost its true north. BUT true north itself has not changed. There is hope in that. There are hobbits, wizards, fairies, and Tom Bombadil's among us who will keep fighting for a kinder future.

Today I refuse to anticipate what may be as promised by the party of Trump and Project 2025. It's for my own self preservation. Drowning myself in the "what may be's" tends to paralysize me in fear and leads me to an innate fight or freeze response that leads me to nowhere good. I cannot read the news as it's just too hard today after seeing the cover photo of the New York Times. I did however take heart in the opinion pieces in the Atlantic (pasted below) and the Huffington Post. Another piece of reality - in a good way - was Jon Stewart's piece.

For today, I'm reaching out to loved ones, ones who worked so hard for different results, and to young people in my circle who are devastated. I'm hugging my dogs, going to lunch with a friend I've not seen in a while, and I'm evaluating who I need to be towards creating a better world even in my "retirement". I feel blessed that I am now a Guardian Ad Litem in training working on the individual level for children and families against humanities' darker addictions. Likewise I am grateful to the Brahma Kamaris from whom I learned a valuable lesson to breathe, to be in this moment, to take the long view, and to always believe in the growth of humanity. I'm grateful for those lessons and friendships. And still, not enough.

From my mother, I learned resilience. As I shared with my siblings this morning, 

"Right now, I'm calling on Mom's resiliency which I did every night after Jim was diagnosed with cancer and throughout my grief. Not sure how many of us she shared which stories with but two that I'm turning to now are the Cuban missile crisis when she was pregnant and how frightened she was for all of us. Hence the bomb shelter. The other was WWII and her stories of that fear and how Grandpa (a German immigrant) was one of a group of organized citizens who would patrol the streets watching for German bombers and how frightening that was. Today I'm calling on their strength."

With all that, I also acknowledge that I am angry and grieving today, that I am deeply distressed and depressed. It is such a familiar place for me, one I do not like to stay in long. I also acknowledge that it is because I couldn't change the outcome of Jim's death that I may have also anticipated this outcome. From that experience I had such a depressing view of how this election may and did turn out (and of course, I really wish he was here so we could lend comfort to each other today). It's a life view, that some things cannot be changed, that I daily work against since his death. It's the anthesis of hope and can be also paralyze me.

So today, I refuse to give into the darkness of Mordor. I refuse to look at the world as black and white, good and evil. We are neither, we are both, we are human in an existence that contains life and death, day and night, always changing, not always in the direction we hope for but one which allows our stories to play out. With a choice of how I write my story, I will continue to move towards the betterment of all of us and our tiny planet. It is an imperative for those of us who can. Perhaps it is when the world is darkest that our true selves, our true purpose, our brightest lights are required, and our connection to that which is greater. In this election cycle I have seen that too. It is not that we will in fact succeed during our lives, it is that we are required to be more. Perhaps this is why this is the world we are born into and needed in. We are here to be active players in this world, in our humanity.

In this public note to myself, I am reflecting on what I believe in, on what light I can shine into the chaos we know lies ahead. For me, its digging deeper into these strengths and beliefs I have: to continue to work towards equality, education, youth, our living world; to find comfort in friendships, family, community; and to sharpen my tools that can make a difference—art, writing, observation, reflection, teaching, listening, learning, and reaching out. So I encourage us all to grieve and be angry today, to hold each other up, to continue to do the good work, and to look to our strengths to make the difference.

Least we forget, even the best of us fail sometimes and the worst of us can change the ending. This is a time to remember that Frodo came under the Power of the Ring, and it was Gollum, in his greed, who helped to cause Sauron to lose his power. 

------Editor's opinion from The Atlantic-------

“An aspiring fascist is the president-elect, again, of the United States. This is our political reality: Donald Trump is going to bring a claque of opportunists and kooks (led by the vice president–elect, a person who once compared Trump to Hitler) into government this winter, and even if senescence overtakes the president-elect, Trump’s minions will continue his assault on democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution.

The urge to cast blame will be overwhelming, because there is so much of it to go around. When the history of this dark moment is written, those responsible will include not only Trump voters but also easily gulled Americans who didn’t vote or who voted for independent or third-party candidates because of their own selfish peeves.

Trump’s opponents will also blame Russia and other malign powers. Without a doubt, America’s enemies—some of whom dearly hoped for a Trump win—made efforts to flood the public square with propaganda. According to federal and state government reports, several bomb threats that appeared to originate from Russian email domains were aimed at areas with minority voters. But as always, the power to stop Trump rested with American voters at the ballot box, and blaming others is a pointless exercise.

So now what?

The first order of business is to redouble every effort to preserve American democracy. If I may invoke Winston Churchill, this is not the end or the beginning of the end; it is the end of the beginning.

For a decade, Trump has been trying to destroy America’s constitutional order. His election in 2016 was something like a prank gone very wrong, and he likely never expected to win. But once in office, he and his administration became a rocket sled of corruption, chaos, and sedition. Trump’s lawlessness finally caught up with him after he was forced from office by the electorate. He knew that his only hope was to return to the presidency and destroy the last instruments of accountability.

Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight.

Do not misunderstand me. I am not counseling complacency: Trump’s reelection is a national emergency. If we have learned anything from the past several years, it’s that feel-good, performative politics can’t win elections, but if there was ever a time to exercise the American right of free assembly, it is now—not least because Trump is determined to end such rights and silence his opponents. Americans must stay engaged and make their voices heard at every turn. They should find and support organizations and institutions committed to American democracy, and especially those determined to fight Trump in the courts. They must encourage candidates in the coming 2026 elections who will oppose Trump’s plans and challenge his legislative enablers.

After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, then–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to make Obama a one-term president, and obstructed him at every turn. McConnell, of course, cared only about seizing power for his party, and later, he could not muster that same bravado when faced with Trump’s assaults on the government. Patriotic Americans and their representatives might now make a similar commitment, but for better aims: Although they cannot remove Trump from office, they can declare their determination to prevent Trump from implementing the ghastly policies he committed himself to while campaigning.

The kinds of actions that will stop Trump from destroying America in 2025 are the same ones that stopped many of his plans the first time around. They are not flashy, and they will require sustained attention, because the next battles for democracy will be fought by lawyers and legislators, in Washington and in every state capitol. They will be fought by citizens banding together in associations and movements to rouse others from the sleepwalk that has led America into this moment.

Trump’s victory is a grim day for the United States and for democracies around the world. You have every right to be appalled, saddened, shocked, and frightened. Soon, however, you should dust yourself off, square your shoulders, and take a deep breath. Americans who care about democracy have work to do.”