I will not surrender joy

I wanted to feel joy this morning. It snuck up on me as I ate my breakfast and watched my colorful fish peacefully swim in their aquarium. Then I stopped myself. How could I feel joy in light of the great darkness that has come upon my country? How can I celebrate when I still simultaneously am grieving for myself, for my country, for my friends and even strangers whose lives stand to be so negatively impacted in the coming years? It seemed wrong, inappropriate, immoral.

Until I reflected on this a bit more and realized that it isn’t. To stop feeling and expressing joy, amazement, wonder, delight and hope just because my country will be led by people who spew hatred, fear and division would be to grant them another unearned victory. I will not allow Donny Drumpf and his sidekicks to steal my ability to experience the whole range of human emotion. I will not give him that power.

This does not mean I celebrate his election. I most certainly do not.

It does not mean that I will not grieve the injustices that he and his government will perpetrate upon so many people. I most certainly will. And I will stand against them.

It does not mean I will not feel, and as appropriate express, my anger towards those who discriminate against others, who seek to exclude those who are different, who act with violence toward them, who try to establish an environment in which only straight white people are welcome. I will certainly feel that anger.

But I will not let it control me. I will not let it own me. I will not become consumed by the same narrow-minded fear that DD has expressed throughout his campaign.

So I will dance. I will allow room for joy, and hope, and wonder. I will celebrate beauty. We’re going to need all of those and more to get us through the coming years.

DD may have won the electoral vote, but he did not win the right to take away my joy. He did not win the right to keep me from enjoying the beauty and goodness in life (even as he seeks to squash so much of it.) He did not win the right to rob me of peace and hope. I will not give him that right.