Hallelujah

I was up most of the night on Tuesday, as was most of the country. I was checking my phone constantly and could not get a restful sleep. I was worried and anxious and scared.

Most of my fears had nothing to do with the Presidential election. You see, my nephew was on his way to being born and in my family, that is cause enough for alarm.

Leonas (Leo for short) was born and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. He is here. He is safe. I can go on with my life.

It was then that I had a chance to really think about the election. There is nothing I can write that has not been written, tweeted, Facebooked, spoken, thought, shouted, etc. in the last few days. Am I scared? YES. Am I even more scared as a minority? YUP.  Am I gonna freak out about it? Probably only in the safe comfort of my own home.

I do not know what this all means. It's so much more than the fact that my candidate lost. It's that so many millions of us lost our reason for hope and optimism. 

My dad was a very successful businessman in his day. I was just telling this fact to my mother-in-law last weekend. The thing is, my dad was not that smart. Barely a high school graduate and I know he never even thought about college. However, he knew who to surround himself by to get the job done and get the job done well.

I am not comparing our President-elect with my dad. Ha! No, not at all. I am just hoping that he will be smart enough to make the right choices based on the people with whom he shares his company. It's just a thought.

I am a woman. I am a Jewish woman. I am a Jewish woman in an interfaith marriage. I am raising an adopted daughter who is at least part Dominican and Native American. I can't afford to just sit back and wait for the future to unfold. I need to be a part of the movement to make sure America stays as great as it already is to me.

My sister-in-law was in labor at the polls on Tuesday. Active labor. Not one person let her move ahead in the line. That was before the results were in. Tuesday's election did not break us...much of us was already broken. Now it's time to fix what we can.

But I am gonna take a few moments off. I am gonna snuggle my baby nephew. I am gonna love him and cherish him and thank the heavens that he was born ALIVE. Not even that is a given, although we like to think it is.

For the sake of the next generation, let's be kind. Let's not give up. Let's sing a collective "Hallelujah".