Transition

Transitions are hard, and some are harder than others.

When you deliver a baby, you reach a part of labor called transition before you start to push your newborn into the world. The transition stage is infamous for its intensity and, often, excruciating pain. Shaking, sweating, nausea, and vomiting are common. The mother’s body is not completely in her control. Mothers sometimes panic during the transition stage and become not particularly rational. (I became upset that being a marsupial wasn’t an option.) Sometimes mothers lash out at those around them.

When I look around at all of the different responses from everyone politically left-of-center in the aftermath of the presidential election, I cannot help but be reminded of the transition stage of labor. I see people anxious, shaking, sweating, nauseous, panicking, angry, sometimes irrational, and often looking for someone at whom to direct their anger and blame. I see many people understandably scared and in a lot of pain.

Part of what makes the transition of labor so challenging is the realization that, while you might have others nearby, you are also alone. You are the only one who can get you through that moment. We are having a similar collective realization now politically-speaking. Many had hopes that someone would “save us,” that institutions would hold, that the rule of law would prevail, or that our fellow citizens would have the sense to reject an obviously unfit and demonstrably dangerous candidate for the most powerful office in the world. But none of those things happened.

Instead, we are anticipating a transformation of the federal government that could endanger many of us and many people we care about. All of us will be subjected to new limitations on our freedom of speech, and our access to factual information will become limited. Some groups are going to have their civil rights curtailed and their bodily autonomy challenged. Some individuals and organizations will be targeted with the full power of the federal government. Entire populations could be deported. It is a frightening and painful prospective future--and one we are facing in an environment in which there is a distinct absence of political leadership by those with power.

So, here we are, alone together, experiencing an intense transition and feeling out of control within the larger political body. Is it any wonder people are reacting the way they are? Yet, mothers persevere through the stage of fear, pain, and panic, and so must we.

We need to begin to focus on the new political reality and, within that context, to figure out how we can still create meaning and substance. The process before us will be extremely difficult and, as with in childbirth, not everyone will survive. For those who do survive though, the future will come one way or another. The question before us is what can we each do to help deliver the best future possible, for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for the children the world has yet to meet.

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If you are ready to move forward and don’t know where to start, Indivisible.org does important political organizing work at local and national levels.

Other options include picking an issue area you care about and identifying local organizations on the ground already doing the work. Issue areas include things like immigration related aid and advocacy, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, homelessness and hunger, and the environment. They will all need volunteer assistance and donations in the days ahead, and local organizations often do not receive funding or help proportional to the need.