THE INAUGURATION

That black dress and black hat sort of said it all...

Given things that happened yesterday - particularly executive orders that will cause pain and havoc in the lives of so many people and lead to increased destructiveness to the natural environment - there will probably be some very difficult days ahead. It’s painful to watch the torching of our national good by someone simultaneously exhorting us to greatness.

Watching the inauguration yesterday was in many ways like watching a funeral. We’re going to have to dig very deep into our souls in order to transmute all this.

Yet that’s the call of this moment, and it’s what we will do. There are millions of Americans who do see - and millions more who will see - that the Trump agenda is more of a sledgehammer than a boon to our freedoms. They will be looking for hope at this agonizing hour.

In a country that already has a mental health crisis, things are about to happen that will try us all. Americans have never seen soldiers go into workplaces and homes to grab terrified people. We have never seen the full scale assault on our rights, our planet, our very well being that was unleashed by the President with his first spate of executive orders last night.

In the words of Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

The resistance today is very different than in 2016. It’s a slow burning, quiet, fierce fire that feels like it’s destroying our insides - but actually, it’s destroying whatever part of us needs to burn off in order for us to adequately respond to this moment. It’s easy to seethe right now, not only at what’s happening but at those who in their arrogance allowed this to happen. Yet that is not the answer. We need to honor our process - rest when we need to rest and take a break when we need to take a break - but follow the dictates of our conscience and proceed in the direction of miracles.

In fact, there has never been a moment that so called us collectively to be as strong as we are called to be now. The sign-off phrase to the Declaration of Independence is "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Today, those are not just words…