Calm(ish)

Saturday, November 7 eased my anxiety a great deal. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners of the 2020 Presidential Election.

So, why do I feel only calmish? Well, unlike Barack Obama who invited the president-elect to the White House three days after the results of the election were determined, it is almost Thanksgiving and no such invitation has come from the sitting president.

“God Grant Me the Courage to Change the Things I Can Change, the Serenity to Accept the Things That I Can’t Change and the Wisdom to know the Difference.”

Reinhold Niebuhr

I clearly haven’t fully embraced the message in the Serenity Prayer. I believe that I have the first third of it, the Courage part. But I’ve yet to grasp the Serenity and Wisdom parts of the prayer. I if did have a grasp on the meaning of the entirety of the prayer, I would be feeling calm. Not just calmish, but calm. Sort of like I feel when I gaze at this photograph for a while.

Deep down inside, I do believe in the words of Unitarian Theologian Theodore H. Parker that “the moral arc of the Universe bends toward justice.” But, I am finding it very hard to have the patience to see the arc reaching justice.

The arc has made it part way to its goal. A new president has been elected. One that will work to unite Americans and not divide Americans. One that will work to ease the suffering from the Coronavirus Pandemic, not make it worse. One that will tell you the truth regardless of whether or not you want to hear it. One that will address the long swept-under- the-rug issue of Race so that the long trip to equality and justice can get on the road.

One that will address Climate Change and work to mitigate it’s effects for the benefit of generations to come. One that will see that the best way to get along in a diverse and ever changing world is to collaborate and communicate with other world leaders to solve problems that don’t end at the waters edge or a man-made political boundary.

Next comes the recognition on the part of the President that, as they did four years earlier, the American people have made a choice. The people, as will be finalized in the coming weeks, have chosen a president.

Perhaps remembering the items on this list from the book “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” would encourage the president, and us, to do the right thing at this moment in time. The things that formed us into who we are today.

• Share Everything.
• Play Fair.
• Don’t Hit People.
• Put Things back Where You Found Them.
• CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
• Don’t Take Things That Aren’t Yours.
• Say You’re Sorry When You Hurt Somebody.
• Wash Your Hands Before You Eat.
• Flush.
• Warm Cookies and Cold Milk are Good For You.
• Live a Balanced Life- Learn Some and Drink Some and Draw Some and Paint Some and Sing and Dance and Play and Work Everyday Some.
• Take a Nap Every Afternoon.
• When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together
• Be aware of Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup-they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the “Dick-and-Jane” books and the first word you learned-the biggest work of all-Look.

–Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

I feel much calmer now.