United States Not Divided States
Yesterday was Election Day, and I intentionally wore purple to a prayer vigil that was held at Unity of the Blue Ridge. I am wearing purple right now as I write this. There were 3 other women spread distantly apart in the Sanctuary, all with their eyes closed. I recognized one of them as the facilitator of our Unity Women's Sacred Prayer Circle, Rev. Barbara Ann Simone, so I chose a seat across the aisle from her. I closed my eyes too and began repeating these words in my mind: "Peace", "Love", "Unity", "Justice". That last word floated into my consciousness briefly before it was replaced with "Harmony". Other than the meditative ethereal music that played in the background, it was mostly silent, apart from some office staffers' conversations that occasionally spilled into the otherwise quiet space.
I opened my eyes briefly to look at the other faces around the room. I wondered what words were floating through their minds. Then I realized the time and remembered I needed to grab a quick lunch before my next doctor's appointment. That is how my mind works whenever I am meditating, my to-do lists always float in. Where could one grab lunch nearby? When I exited the Sanctuary, Barbara Ann walked up behind and said during her meditation she felt that the North and South divide had not yet been healed from the Civil War. She also acknowledged the differences within my own home, which are unusual because I am a liberal Southerner and my husband is a conservative Yankee. I guess you could say that we live in a purple house. I wrote this blog "How is the climate in your house" on November 20, 2024.
Although I was very curious about last night's elections, I was not glued to the television watching live results come in as many Americans were. It wasn't until 8:56 PM when my prayer partner in New York City texted me that Jaime Ager had just won my 11th District and Roy Cooper was my new Senator, that I turned on my Roku and clicked the first Live Results link I saw. It happened to be "LiveNow FOX News", and I began to notice they were not calling electoral wins as quickly as the accompanying acceptance speeches were being started. In a few cases, by the time they cut to the speech, the candidate was walking off the stage.
I know waking up this morning that there are people who are jubilant and those who are devastated. Rev. Darlene is the Senior Minister of Unity of the Blue Ridge and has said that our congregation is very diverse and politically mixed. Notice I did not use the word "divided". I am optimistic she will remind us to love all of our neighbors, the "red" conservatives and the "blue" liberals. When I woke up this morning in my own bed, I reached across to my husband's side, and it was cold. He fell asleep downstairs in the theater where he was watching the polls close.
I remembered how I slept in the guest bedroom in November 2024 and quietly cried myself to sleep. I woke up heartbroken, and I sobbed loudly in the shower. When our paths did finally cross that morning, my husband was very tender. Gentle. Soft spoken. Dr. Will reminded me how lovingly my husband handled the 2024 presidential election, and this reminder prompted me to try to maintain a respectful home environment today.
I made a short video on my iPhone yesterday that was meant to be humorous. I shared the contents of our large mailbox, which had not been checked for many days. I counted out 13 pieces of electoral mail for my husband, and read their headlines, which included:
"Help mountain leadership versus the political elite"
"This is the most important election of your life, don't wait. Get out and vote today!"
"Stop Democrats, Vote today!"
"Your Neighbor Will Know If You Didn't Do Your Part! Vote extreme liberal democrats down."
"Jamie Ager finally said it, he stands with the far left, not us."
"NC Supreme Court Ballot Guide"
"Socialist and government control, versus the clear choice."
I giggled throughout the video and closed by looking directly into the camera and saying "I hope everyone has harmony in their homes and are doing their part, remembering we are all Children of God. And we all have a fair choice. I believe strongly that every American's right to vote is an important responsibility. I am grateful we have a broad spectrum of candidates to choose from. We are living in the United States, not the Divided States, so let's do what we can to keep it United."
So, I sent our brain injury support group members an email titled "Let's All Get Out to Vote". In it I shared early voting locations in Buncombe and Henderson Counties, shared some crucial deadlines and even included a sample ballot so we could easily see who was on it. Five hours later one of those members sent a reply-all response to 60 recipients that read "Yep voting Dem's out." Another member replied a few weeks later that they discovered "I stupidly let my ID expire. This is my problem, not yours but this may be the first election where I've been eligible to vote but won't because I can't."
In March 2027, I will return to Washington D.C. for the National Brain Injury Awareness Conference, where hundreds of advocates, doctors, family members and people living with brain injury will head to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 10th to advocate for brain injury awareness. I cannot wait to meet with staffers in Jamie Ager's and Roy Cooper's offices. As new Senator Elect of Texas, James Talarico so eloquently shared last night, "A politics of division is no match for a politics of love."