Remembering how to be Honest

(is there still room in the Gospel for the truth?)

Cory took the window screens out last weekend. This is a weird quirk of mine, and he obliges. For the next SIX (sigh) months, we will be cold-packed indoors, the windows sealed. I might as well have an unobstructed view. Sunlight streamed through this morning, catching the dust that settled over the past three days and counting. This week has been a long month.

As expected, I got carried away in the days leading up to the election. The emergency of Donald Trump was never far from my mind. Remember how Cory and I both used to work in Republican politics? We’ve retained one critical information source (and close friend) who has eyes on the machinations of that system. Never, not once, did he waver from saying (despondently,) “He is going to win.” I told myself he was just being dramatic, or overly pessimistic. When that didn’t work, I tried to convince myself that maybe enough people were movable. Maybe some of us were still clear-eyed. Maybe we just needed access to the right information.

So, I threw myself in. It was exhilarating. My energy was endless. My ideas bottomless. The work flowed - it wasn’t taxing at all. Some listened. Thousands unfollowed, which was not alarming to me. What was alarming was the number of folks who weren’t already crystal clear about who I am and what I’m about. I work hard to be knowable in important ways, to bring my full. Aligned and transparent. I don’t obfuscate.

Post-election, I’m tired of engaging my Emergency Broadcast System against Trump. It doesn’t matter at this point. We chose him not in spite of his rap sheet, but because of it. We have to be honest about that. White Christians in particular seem to love having a Hater in Chief. We love being mean, retributive, nasty, and abusive by proxy. We love quietly jumping in line for outward-facing racism and vengeance. We cover our tracks by saying, “I didn’t like either candidate,” then vote for the one for whom hate is a point of pride. He tells it like it is, so we don’t have to. DJT - the world’s most powerful ventriloquist doll.