Observationally speaking, January 20, 2025, was a day of mixed emotions for a lot of people. One presidential administration began its service and leadership and another one ended its. So it goes.
Some people were happy. Some were not. That’s life. That’s liberty. That’s the pursuit of happiness.
While I’m not going to write about and encourage unity, I am not going to write about and encourage division either other than in order to achieve unity, we first need to acknowledge and accept division, differences, and diversity (in its most basic and classical definition).
Whether you’re feeling good about the United States of America right now or feeling an equal but opposite emotion, there is only one thing for all of us to do — move forward.
One step at a time
The history of the United States is loaded with stories and legends of people moving forward.
Whether it was pilgrims, colonists from England, or other immigrants crossing the Atlantic Ocean to come to this land, they all took a combination of small steps and leaps of faith to dramatically change their lives.
There were also people who had been in this land for a while and wanted to explore new opportunities “out west” for a chance to tame the land and make it their own. For some of them, the journey was challenging and deadly. Some didn’t make it and some did. They all took that first step that led to a second and third and so on. They moved forward.
During the Depression years (the big one), a lot of people had to take steps forward they never thought they would ever have to. For many of them, it may have seemed like they were going backward in search of work, a home, or any sort of meager possessions to call their own.
All of these people had to live, they had to take care of themselves and their families, and they had to take steps to do so.
This is completely speculative on my part, but my guess is that among these people, you had a combination of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about their respective governments at the time.
Some may have been happy with their leaders and some may have been less than happy with current leadership.
Whatever the scenario may have been, they moved on and moved forward.
Knowing our call
We are all called to keep moving no matter how we feel about anything right now.
If you’re in the “woo hoo” camp, don’t rest and drink the sweet milk of victory. There is so much to be done. Take care of and make things better for your home, family, neighborhood, community, state, and country.
If you’re in the “ugh” camp, don’t wallow in pity and woe. There is so much to be done. Take care of and make things better for your home, family, neighborhood, community, state, and country.
No matter how we feel about anything, we are all “Americans” (Are people from Brazil and Canada “Americans” too in some way?).
You can be unhappy with your government — everyone takes turns doing that every four to eight years, — but we’re all still here.
There are some things always worth fighting for, however you wish to define “fighting”.
We don’t know what’s going to happen over the next four years, but there is a lot we can do to make it good.
And one more piece of advice, and I never thought I would ever say this, cut back on the news. Don’t cut it out entirely because we ought to be informed, but you probably don’t need all of it.
Starting now
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not — I’m sorry, that line has been used already.
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another — I’m sorry, that line has been used already too. More than 50 years ago actually.
Maybe everything that needs to be said has already been said.
I find hope in the fact that maybe we have heard all that we need to hear and know all that we have to do. All we have to do now is go out and “do it”.
What each of us has to do will take some thought, discernment, and prayer (gasp!).
With faith, hope, and love (and God!) at our sides, we can figure out what we should do.
All of us have something we are called to do to “make things better”.
It doesn’t matter who the leader is, our mission never changes.
We are all here for a reason. Let’s make the best and most of it. We owe that to each other.
All it takes is a step.
Make it.
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.