It’s Election Eve…and folks on every side are nervous. Nervous about whether their candidate will win or not. Nervous about how folk will behave tomorrow at the polls. Nervous about how people will respond the day after. Nervous about violence, vitriol, and anger. Nervous.
Me?
Without a doubt I want Hillary to win. And without an ounce of hesitation I want Donald Trump to disappear from my TV, news feed, and social media never to be heard about again. But come what may, this election has left me wiser.
This election has turned the lights on in some dark corners of who we are as a nation, what we believe about each other, and with what we will align our morals, values, and principles. Maybe it’s white privilege, maybe it’s being upper middle class in a progressive state, or maybe the whole lot of us have had our heads buried in the sand.
But over and over these past few months, the following verse from the Bible has come into my mind: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5 NIV)
The lights came on and…
- our nations is not as grown up as we thought we were
- we are more racist, more sexist, less tolerant of one another’s religious beliefs, and lack compassion for those running from danger in their homeland
- somehow we were shocked that large corporations (who are not people by the way) run the system with their money and power
- we looked around at our loved ones and realized that we had far different ideologies than we’d ever known or imagined
Here’s the thing about turning on lights…the darkness is made real. It is unveiled. Sometimes the monsters under the bed are actual monsters. And often when the light gets turned on…turned up…the good people can see their path. The light bearers across party lines can see their way to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and begin to find the path to love.
As the great Anne Lamott says, “Goodness, Grace, Mercy, Compassion–whatever you want to call them–always bat last.”
So tomorrow, I will dress in support of my candidate. I will celebrate when she wins. I will mourn if she doesn’t. And no matter what, I will go where the light leads and I will go with those of you who carry light.
