My
daughter cried the morning of November 11, 2016 when I told her Donald Trump
was going to be president. She was upset
by the news she heard about him misbehaving around women, and was afraid to
have him as president.
I
tried to be measured in how to explain to her to be effective with responding
to creating change. She wanted to move
to Britain. I explained that running
away from our scary feelings is not the best way to deal with them. Sometimes we need to face our feelings.
How
can we deal with our negative feelings of fear as they arise? Instead of
telling my daughter to stop feeling a certain way, I entertained her idea of
running from this presidency. Moving
would be difficult. We would have to put
our pets in quarantine, get visas, jobs, and housing. That might be more difficult than signing a
petition and voting, or protecting ourselves and others from difficulty.
I then honored her
feelings as useful information. I
explained that any man who talks about women the way he does or walks into dressing
rooms, should be avoided. Her emotions
led us to a discussion of which situations she should engage with and which
ones she should avoid.
I explained her
feelings, and my feelings can motivate us to be the change we want to see in
this country.
