acknowledging the proverbial elephant

More than ever, this post is a personal letter from me (and maybe TO me) to anyone out there. It is time that I acknowledge the elephant in the room. These past two weeks have been, for this progressive feminist American woman, nearly unbearable. Though my darkest fears had me saying for more than a year that this election could turn out exactly as it did, the rationalist, the humanist, and maybe even the tiny shred of optimist in me refused to believe it. And yet..

Half of the voting public – nearly 60 million people – voted for a man who actively promotes hate speech, who openly disdains, demeans, and disregards the rights of women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, those with differing sexual orientation, and those who have the audacity to live in poverty. A man who deplores everything I hold dear and what I have to believe this experiment called America is supposed to represent. 60 million people either endorsed this misogynistic, bigoted, jingoistic, xenophobic person or just didn’t care that this was what he represented.

Either way, I am shaken to my core. I feel at sea and unwell, unsure how to move forward. And so, I have been unable to write thoughtful book reviews. Hell, I have struggled to form a thought or read a book these past weeks.

Elephant acknowledged. Now I carry on. My personal mission to continue to seek out the voices too often shouted down remains. More than ever, I feel a sense of purpose in focusing on, elevating, and sharing the voices of women and people of color in particular. I will do my best to calm my anxiety, soften my despair, and return to the reading and writing that lifts my spirits and feeds my mind. I hope you’ll stick around.