Grace and Respect

I did not have a candidate in this election. Not from the beginning. Not in either major political party, and not in any of the 3rd party options. So I was never going to feel “great” waking up on this day. What I do feel is confused, and concerned, and a little bit sad. Because while I did not have a candidate in this election, there is no world in which I would have ever made a choice that a slim majority of our country did make yesterday. But this isn’t about me and my feelings, this is about my children and what they can learn from where we do find ourselves today.

We are privileged to live in a country where there is a democratic process. That process may not be perfect, and we will not always agree with the outcome, but there are people all over the world who don’t even get a voice. We may not understand how we got here. We may not agree with the outcome. But it happened, and as in anything it is not the circumstance that defines us, it is how we choose to respond to the circumstance that shows the world who we are.

So how do we respond?

We respond with grace and respect.

Each and every day, I tell my kids to go out into the world being the best version of themselves and to do good all the good they can. Each and every day that is what I tell them. What happened in the election does not change that, if anything it makes it more important.

We live with grace and respect. For all people. In all situations. That was true yesterday. That is true today. That is an eternal truth.

We live with grace and respect, and we move forward. And we show the world who we are.