A Butterfly & A Rose

This article is not about an unpopular U.S. presidential election, though it starts that way. It’s not about who’s on the right or the left.

- Jo Mooy

It’s actually about the aftermath of an election 12 months ago and the ensuing chaos that resulted. It’s a story of what was done to deal with the chaos consuming the external world and what we did to soothe our inner lives for the following 12 months.

A year ago the unthinkable happened. Fed up with politics as usual, a man many believe unqualified, a man demeaned in the media, a man said to be unelectable, a man who appealed to the darkest and most unkind parts of our collective nature got elected. On November 7th we woke up to an unrecognizable normal. The world had turned upside down.

Half of the United States was ecstatic. The other half was overcome by shock and disbelief. Surely, it was a big mistake. But as the days wore on the second group realized there was no mistake. Soon they were entombed in the five stages of grief beginning with denial. They reasoned, maybe the vile days of the campaign were over and sanity would be restored. When that hope was rebuffed, they became enraged. Plans were made for massive marches on Washington, D.C., or on congressional offices.

Some, holding to the spirit of reconciliation, decided to find out who the voters were. They went out to meet them in their homes and listen to what they said. They drove to the heartland and to cities between the two liberal coasts. They attempted a