(11/9)...streaming

aka stewing over elections


Having predicted that the candidate who won the presidential election would win the election I am sort of surprised that I am still feeling so low. I suppose that says a lot for the hope that I had that I would be wrong. Intuitively I knew it wouldn't happen (he would lose), but still, I hoped.

In my last post, Sarah D. of Minnesota commented, "Maybe this is extreme, but it almost feels like someone (something) important in my life has died. There is a void, an emptiness ... I don't know."

That's exactly how I feel, and I think it's a bit of faith in our fellow Americans, and hope for this country that has died. At least for the time being.

I now, without a shadow of a doubt, realize that Conservative, faith-filled, God-fearing Americans are the minority. At least in the voting minority.

And what does that mean? It means the future is a lot less certain from my perspective, and possibly that I have been living under a rock for too long. I do so enjoy my own little corner of the world that I failed to notice that the world outside my little corner had turned into a technicolor nightmare. Yikes...I don't know those people. Who are they? I feel a bit like Rip van Winkle, waking up after being a sleep for 100 years to a strange new world.

What is one to do when one is unwilling to be a part of the madness?

I can't answer that question. I haven't a clue.

I know that I like my corner of the world and am unwilling to budge even the tiniest bit. Yesterday my oldest son said we should move to Iceland. Iceland? It's rather tiny there, isn't it? I said I'd rather travel through time. Take me back to a time in which I feel more at home.

Both of those options, however, are not real. Not for me. 

What I do know for certain, what is more clear, is that I can not be part of this world, and maybe that is a message God is trying to give us. This world is not the place for anyone with real faith in God.

My mother-in-law told me that when God answers your prayers with a real solid "No" then he has a better "Yes."

I am hopeful for that "Yes," though I am not sure it will come without some suffering. My daughter and I had a discussion yesterday about that "Yes" and whether or not God's plan for us might mean a little "discomfort" (it's a less severe word than "suffering"). She, being 10, does not understand why God would want us to be uncomfortable. I used that tired old adage "what does not kill us makes us stronger" and she said she doesn't want to suffer or die. Smart little chick. 

Maybe what God wants is for us to look inside, instead of to the world, and we still haven't learned that. I have told my husband countless times since Tuesday, "Circle the wagons, dear." Look inside your home, within your loved ones, within  your Church, within yourself, for the truth...not to the world. 

We have grown so soft. Our children, the generation that won this election, is especially so. They have every aspect of their lives just as they created, from their playlists, to their FB friends, to their Netflix queued films. When I was their age we listened to the radio and whatever song was on, we heard. We watched whatever was on the television, not our favorite dvr'd shows. We grew up to be a lot more tolerant of discomfort. They have a rude awakening ahead, one which would shock the pants off even Rip van Winkle. And maybe that is just what God had in mind. We all must learn to turn inward, to our creator, to be truly happy. 

CCC: 27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.


Just to be clear, I have not lost faith in God, nor hope for eternal happiness. Quite the contrary. I am quite certain that faith in God and hope for eternal happiness is the only sure thing.

For the past two days I have had a song running through my head,. I find myself humming it at quiet moments, and I can only believe that God the Holy Spirit put it there. I have never, to my recollection, sung this hymn at Mass. But it says everything my heart wants to believe.

O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne

Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is Thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,

Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting Thou art God,

To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,

“Return, ye sons of men”:

All nations rose from earth at first,

And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight

Are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night

Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,

With all their lives and cares,

Are carried downwards by the flood,

And lost in foll’wing years.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

Bears all its sons away;

They fly, forgotten, as a dream

Dies at the op’ning day.

Like flow’ry fields the nations stand

Pleased with the morning light;

The flow’rs beneath the mower’s hand

Lie with’ring ere ’tis night.

O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Be Thou our guard while troubles last,

And our eternal home.