Open Thread: Now What?

Where do we go from here?

NICOLE: So. We should talk about this.

MEGAN: Yep. I don’t really know what there is to say. But it happened. Somehow, Donald Trump won.

NICOLE: It’s going to sound so cliché, but I feel like the hardest part is the not knowing. A lot of people are worried that their lives are going to get worse. I’m worried that my life might get a little worse and I’ve got all kinds of privileges that other people don’t.

MEGAN: The hardest part of anything is always the not knowing. Usually with things like this, I tend to assume the best instead of assuming the worst, but in this situation it’s hard not to do both, I guess? We are privileged in a lot of ways and it’s crucial to acknowledge that. I just…I’m not sure what this is going to look like for anybody because Trump is a lot of hot air with little knowledge or experience to back it up.

NICOLE: Part of my worries are about whether people are going to lose their jobs or their health insurance or their freedom to marry the people they love—or if they’re going to feel afraid to live in their own country, which is huge—but there’s also, theoretically, the fate of the entire planet on the line. I don’t know how much of that is true. I feel like I’ve read a lot of articles in the past 12 hours.

MEGAN: I have read so many things that they’re all starting to blur together in a horrible thinkpiece-y porridge. I’ve read some pretty BAD things, mostly. And I’m not surprised! Processing something of this magnitude on like 2 hours of sleep and a lot of Red Bull would obviously result in bad Takes. But I get the impulse to want to try and process it and put something out. And, you’re right — the fate of the entire planet is on the line. So……yeah.

NICOLE: There’s a metaphor I’ve been drawing in my head and I’m hoping it sounds a bit more profound than presumptuous: I’m a little afraid of airplanes, not because I actually think the individual plane I am on will crash, but because some do, and every time I get on a plane I am forced to think about the fact that even though I am unlikely to die today, I will definitely die someday, and I will die with a lot of work unfinished. I can’t stop that, no matter how hard I work or what I do.

That’s what this morning feels like to me. It may all turn out okay. It may not. I don’t know. But it’s a reminder that I will die someday and I will die with work unfinished and I won’t have been able to do all the good I want to do in the world.

MEGAN: That metaphor resonates with me, at least. I think it’s important to separate hand wringing and rampant, insane speculation from processing and anger and whatever other emotions there are. I understand that people deal with their shit in their own ways. There’s no real right way to deal with this. I think we all just need to take care of each other.

NICOLE: I agree. Shall we open the thread?

MEGAN: Open it up. Be kind to each other, dudes.

We are taking the rest of the day off for self-care and will be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Take care of yourselves.

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