Dread is the feeling that author Katherine Willis Pershey used to describe her sentiments about the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Anxiety, tension and fraught as Katherine puts it, is what everyone seems to have in common about this election. Below are tips that she suggests to help us survive it.
- Be kind. Number one is always “be kind,” isn’t it? In politics and in life. Remember that the people who believe differently than you do are not merely one-dimensional caricatures defined by their party affiliation. Following the Golden Rule would be a great way to restore civility to an increasingly uncivil public sphere.
- You’re probably not going to change anyone’s mind by arguing; it’s rarely wise to engage in political arguments on social media or around the dinner table. The temptation to dig in and fight back can be fierce, but do you really need to take on your college roommate’s second cousin on that Facebook thread or your Aunt Muriel over rhubarb pie?
- You might find yourself on a mountain you’re willing to die on. That’s well and good; there are times when silence feels uncomfortably like complicity. But there’s a difference between dying on that mountain and killing on that mountain. (See 1st bullet above).
- Unfollow is your friend. So are regular breaks from news and social media. Just because those cable channels broadcast twenty-four hours a day doesn’t mean you need to tune in.
- Give generously to organizations doing the kind of work that nudges the world toward how you think things should be.
- Remember that this election is not all there is. Consider the lilies of the field. Consider art and poetry and marching bands and the glory of a midsummer thunderstorm.
- When you cannot bear to think about the candidates any more, think about Americans like Dorothea Lange, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Astaire, Amelia Earhart, Billie Holiday, Flannery O’Connor, Johnny Cash, Michelle Kwan, and Bryan Stevenson.
- Think about Americans like your third grade teacher and the last person who brought you homemade soup when you were sick. Think about Americans like the newly minted citizens with tears streaming down their cheeks as they take the Oath of Allegiance.
- Think about the Americans who defend our country. I could go on.