Grief

From a Google Image Search - NPR

It's January 6th as I write this and the sorrow weighs on my heart when my phone informs me that the Electoral College votes have been confirmed and Trump is indeed our president once again—an insurrectionist in the White House. I expect to carry this sorrow with me for four years and perhaps beyond. Our laws did not protect us.

In his book Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving gives us a dog named Sorrow. When Sorrow dies the family sends him to a taxidermist and Sorrow becomes a tangible symbol of love and loss, of grief that becomes a part of our souls. Perhaps we should only grieve this way about living things, not governments or our tiny planet at the edge of the universe, although these are also living things. I do mourn what the Trumpers (and Trump) have done and intend to do to our flawed but beloved republic. Will our democracy emerge intact after four more years of Trump and the Republicans (who authored Project 2025).

Other writers and commenters try to assuage my grief. They cite the very slim margins that Trump has in the House of Representatives. They seem to believe that the Democrats will obstruct and will persuade the right to soften their purge of “we the people” from the federal government and budget, to fête Trump enough that he no longer feels the urge towards retribution quite as strongly as he says he does.

From a Google Image Search - The Conversation

Trump, however, has his loyalists "to stick his courage to the sticking place." They may know how to keep Trump's anger strong. He has his enforcer, Elon Musk, to be his lightning rod, to collect the shock and anger of American citizens as they lose rights, as they lose financial security, as the Earth offers its lessons that remind us that we could go the way of the dinosaurs.

It looks like we will go down without much of a fight, as the whole world seems disenamoured with freedom. We have a constitution that spells out our laws. It has grown over the decades (centuries) to include thousands of laws passed by a succession of presidents and Congresses. During Trump's first term it was clear that Trump does not follow laws made by American citizens. He brings us a band of outlaws who will say that the laws Trump broke were either bad laws or that he did not break them. He will point to others, some his own loyalists, who understand that blame never accrues to the boss. Some lesser soul will pay the price, serve the time. It is when I see this band of thieves (oligarchs) remaking America to please Trump, the churches, and themselves that I know my sorrow will be a burden that I will live with for a while. How long I have to mourn the America I have known all my life depends on how many of Trump's terrible ideas the oligarchs can foist on “we the people” (mass deportations, tariffs, tax cuts for the rich, and fewer benefits for the poor).

It's not as if I have suspended all joy as if I don't still find pleasure in my daily life. Life has an intrinsic value all its own. Add the natural beauty that lifts our hearts, for as long as Earth can exist in all its glory against the onslaught of man, and life continues to hold some richness that has little to do with money (so long as it is lived above the poverty level).

But the freedom to express ourselves out loud, in words, may be so great a loss that our sorrow will outweigh much of our pleasure. It will be as if we have our own preserved dog, our Sorrow, ever-present, reminding us of what we have lost because some men enjoy conspiring, buying their pleasure at our expense. I hope these four years will not be like that, but I also despair. Fight when you can find safe strategies, write letters, and send postcards. Although we may seem like a swarm of gnats, perhaps we can find ways to be more like those fiery little red ants.