Dear church family,
How are you doing? I know many of us were anxiously working for campaigns, working the polls, and/or staying up late watching the election returns come in. How are you doing today?
Voter turnout was tremendous, races were tight, and families were divided against one another. Some hoped for an enormous “blue wave” and are lamenting today. Others had moderate expectations of a few sufficient reversals, enough to restore a few checks and balances, and are rejoicing. Some hoped for the status quo to be preserved, and are lamenting today. Some make it a practice to not care too much. How are you feeling about it all today?
Transgender people had their rights challenged on the ballot, and thankfully, in Massachusetts voters upheld protections for transgender people. If you’re transgender, you might be breathing a sigh of relief after a really tough week. If you didn’t have your eye on this issue, though, you might have missed it entirely. Some people are much more personally affected by the things we vote on each election. How can you support your friends today?
There may not have been a blue wave but there certainly is a significant wave of information coming at us today. Data is streaming in from every direction. There’s much to talk about, to read, to analyze, to understand. Knowing the brainy-ness of the community that is MPC, we’ll certainly be talking far into the future. And what about your heart and body? Did you get enough rest? Have you eaten? Did you hug someone you love yet today?
The political landscape is changing around us. How we respond and act might change too. If some of your elected officials are now doing the things you want them to do, perhaps even without you needing to send postcards and support advocacy groups on the regular, where will you be sending that political energy now? If some of your core values were bypassed by voters who didn’t care about what you care about, what actions will you take? What might you do, tomorrow and next week? We don’t need to know it all, but we do often need help finding the next right action.
I ask because it’s so easy to get lost in a sea of “those people.” It’s so easy to forget that each of us has a part to play. We look at an electoral map of the US, where a pixel represents a couple hundred thousand people, and we feel so small in the face of it all. But the Divine above it all, who sees each sparrow falling and every grain of sand, does not forget her people. And she’s got work for us to do. And so I ask. How are you doing today? And what’s the next right thing to do?
Every Blessing,
Talitha