Today is Monday, November 11, 2024, Veterans Day. While this is a day to reflect on the sacrifice all members of the military have given in defense of this nation, let us not forget that the incoming president has branded anyone who fought in this country’s world wars and other conflicts as “suckers” and “losers.” I can’t wait to see what he will do to honor those fallen on this solemn day next year when he is already president for 11 soul-shattering months. Time will only tell if his position will soften from the one he held all throughout his first term in office. Obviously, this was not even considered by all of those voters who voted for him last Tuesday.

Today I tried to go about my normal routine, despite how angry I still feel about what happened last week. I went to my regular coffee shop to meet my lady friends at around 10:45 a.m. There we had a spirited discussion about coping with this new reality that will be soon descending on the country and the entire world. Our voices reverberated throughout the diner; I was surprised that no one tried to shush us. However, when I began mentioning the odious Elon Musk and his contribution to Dump’s election victory, a man behind me interjected that he’s South African, not Australian, as I originally believed. This diner was friend, not foe, since I’ve talked to both him and his wife who straddle the same political fence as I do, which means they are Dump haters as much as I am. The discussion with my lady friends ranged from registering disgust with the election results to making a vow not to watch television news shows anymore for a while. “Rachel” said she was not watching news shows at the present moment; she’s concentrating on reading and listening to music more. Which is what we should all be doing for the next several weeks, at least. What I found humorous about our animated discussion about the ramifications of last week’s election is the response from a diner who was on his way out, who quickly said to me, “I agree with everything you’ve said” or something to that effect. I smiled at him as he exited the restaurant. We eventually abandoned the political aspects of our conversation to discuss what transpired over my birthday weekend.

The rest of the day was not too extraordinary. I did do some shopping for myself later in the day. Elliot stayed inside nursing a bad back. He got better as time wore on. He almost went to a chiropractor in the afternoon, but he canceled the appointment because of some improvement in his situation.

An opinion in today’s online Washington Post by columnist Jennifer Rubin sort of sums up what we might all be thinking as we begin to recover from last week’s stunning election news. Her opinion is titled “Stop obsessing about the election and start talking to fellow citizens.”

Rubin states that trying to dissect the results of the election can be counterproductive in the long run. What she proposes instead is for “the media, the politicians, think tanks, and the whole political ecosystem to take a more nuanced approach to U.S. politics.” She advocates for researchers, reporters, think tankers, and policymakers to get out of Washington and take a close look at how people really live. Here is a quote directly from her piece in which she envisions a more robust conversation with the American people that could serve – but not necessarily – as a recipe for winning elections: “Those of us in the Washington-centric world need to know more about Americans who don’t live like us, think like us, look like us, read the same media or listen to the same voices. This is not a formula for winning the next election or for any particular policy outcome; it’s a recipe for creating a greater sense of shared experience and, in the process, developing empathy. Americans are in need of both.”

Tomorrow Elliot and I have appointments to get our Moderna COVID boosters at CVS in the afternoon. Too bad, the country couldn’t get its collective anti-Trump vaccine on Election Day. This way we wouldn’t be staring down four years of chaos and confusion all over again.

And so it went!