#loveisthething

Whether you believe in the theory of “the law of attraction” or not, I have to say we are witnessing the effects of it as we live and speak.

Never in my life have I found myself so frightened for myself, my family, and my country. I am on the edge of tears daily and cannot seem to calm my anxiety or ease my depression.

I, quite simply, can’t breathe.

We seem to have lost the art of discussion. The art of peaceful disagreement. The art of compromise. Instead, we use sarcasm and name-calling. We engage in petty debate via text and social media and speak to each other in ways we would never do face-to-face.

We attack complete strangers who dare to voice an opinion that differs from ours and say horrible things about them. We are then shocked and offended when they do the exact same thing back to us.

And we get sucked up into it, don’t we? We see it and we claim to hate it, then inevitably we end up doing it, either a bit, in part, or just whole hog.

Who can say when or where or how or by whom it started. Maybe it was reality TV. Maybe it was the dawn of social media. Maybe it was the non-stop, 24-hour news shows.

Maybe it got worse with this election, with an obscene, zero filter candidate and a passive-aggressive and condescending candidate. Maybe it snowballed with supporters and detractors on both sides picking up the noise and taking it to a whole new crescendo.

Maybe we’ve become so used to picking sides and being “right” that we forget that there are many many definitions of right, and there are many many perspectives that any one person simply cannot begin to have or understand.

Or maybe, just maybe, this is the “end of days” we’ve been warned about. The way our country has become SO divided that simply pointing out a FACT without any opinion attached to it becomes fodder for hate and vicious attacks.

What I DO know is that this energy, this hate, this vitriol, and these sides make it nearly impossible to just go about your life. I feel like my life as I know it has been upended. People I know and love are acting in ways I never in a million years would have guessed they would act.

Worse of all, they defend their behavior. They feel justified. But I remember the days when disrespect was NEVER justified. When how you spoke to or about someone said more about YOU than it did about them.

I, most recently, remember the profound words of Michelle Obama, who said, “When they go low, we go high.” I teared up at the impact of those words, and still do.

And now I simply cannot breathe.

And it’s not because of who is about to take office. And it’s not about the damage (or maybe even good) he may do in office at some point over the next 4 years. It’s about the way we as a country have become.

It’s about fear of raising questions, voicing concerns, asking people to see things from a different perspective and being raked over the coals for it, or taking a stand against extreme positions that serve to separate rather than unite.

It’s about fear that we judge behavior not on the action itself, but on the person or persons doing the behavior.

It’s about fear that we praise gestures of division but criticize actions that promote unity and inclusion.

And the fear is strangling me... and I cannot breathe.

I am paralyzed with fear, doubt, shock, and grave concern... and the knowledge that these circumstances were not brought ON by the incoming president nor by the outgoing president. These circumstances made conditions ripe for our current situation.

And if we don’t figure out how to come together as a country, we will fail, as a country.

And THAT is why I cannot breathe. I cannot see how we will find our way to that place.

So I pray and I pray and I remember that love is the only thing that can lead us out of this dark time. So I will commit to doing all I can do spread love and unity.