It’s the start of a new dawn, not only in America, but the rest of the world too. Although Trumpkin is throwing a tantrum, he lost fair and square. However, I know everyone still has their fears. I had a nightmare about a tie last night and the feelings from that nightmare reminded me of the feelings I’ve had from nightmares related to my PTSD.
Apparently, a lot of people are suffering another acronym to PTSD – Post Trump Stress Disorder. The feelings are the same as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and while I’m sure EDMR can cure Post Trump Stress Disorder, I think we all need to come together and unite as human beings. Kindness and empathy will go a long way, same with listening. While these things won’t change people over night and sometimes it won’t change people at all, we’re all human beings and we all have our fears. I think Trump gave off the persona of being the downtroddens’ sounding board and I bet if we all felt a modicum of empathy and listened, while also presenting the truth gently (“those jobs are never coming back and immigrants didn’t steal them, automation did”), it probably would make a difference.
Black Lives Matter, as do all lives. Screaming at one another and trying to one up each other on traumas doesn’t solve anything. It just leads to more fighting and hard feelings. A few weeks ago I realized that as I was telling someone about my trauma and this person said, “I had it worse than you, child abuse is worse than rape!” I looked at the person rather shocked, then they apologized. Honestly, both are equally bad. Both should have never happened.
It made me realize that during the whole BLM thing, I was doing similar screaming. My dad is a retired deputy and my deep fear from childhood all the way up to adulthood was my dad never coming home. A lot of people would like to see law enforcement dead and when I see people screaming, “kill the pigs!” it triggers me.
Dad always worked 5am-2:30pm, so he always picked me up from school. My middle school didn’t share what was happening during 9/11 with us, so when mom picked me that day, I panicked wondering where dad was. Mom explained what happened. I think I have more in common with the BLM crowd than we both realize; I bet all families of law enforcement and military have more in common with the crowd: we all fear our family members never coming home. Anyway, my traumas and their traumas should have never happened. In a just world, they shouldn’t, but life doesn’t work that way.
Why this diatribe on Thankful Thursday? I think we need to come together as a Nation. We are the United States of America, not red states, not blue states, but United States. We are Americans, we are all both a fondue and a salad. We melt together, but we also have individual parts that make us who we are. To heal from Post Trump Stress Disorder, we need to be there for one another. I bet that rest of the world needs healing too. I want to thank you for reading this and I want to thank you all for reading this with an opened mind.
November is gratitude month. I’m thankful that @lyft is still operating. Today was office and library day, rather rainy too. My Lyft driver was a kind young man from Russia. He was a joy to chat with for 24 minutes. He’s still learning English, but he did great. I loved chatting about Germany and Russia with him. This is why I love Lyft and grateful he agreed to a selfie. Thank you kind Lyft driver!
I’m also thankful for friends and family. What are you thankful for today?
The Happiness Box Project 
Hi, Jessica Marie!
Happy Thankful Thursday, dear friend!
Like you, I believe many Americans, while dealing with the COVID pandemic, are also suffering from Post Trump Stress Disorder. I believe this includes millions of Republicans who voted for Trump in 2016 and might have voted for him again in 2020. I am somewhat encouraged that a pre-election poll indicated that most Democrats said they would be “angry” if Biden lost, while most Republicans stated that they would merely be “disappointed” if Trump lost. I believe you can read something into that. To me it means that tens of millions of people are willing to accept the result of the election even if Trump refuses to. They yearn for a return to normalcy and an end to all the nastiness, hate and bitterness. I believe it will help greatly when Trump finally leaves office. I know he will remain in the public spotlight for years to come, but at least he won’t be president anymore, abusing his power and using the highest office in the land as a bully pulpit. I believe most reasonable people want to see a United States of America, not another civil war. There are radical factions on both ends of the spectrum and they tend to grab headlines, but the vast majority of the people, I believe, are spread from left of center to right of center.
Thanks for posting that TED talk. I recently watched that documentary about Daryl Davis befriending the KKK wizard. It is an amazing story that proves any combination of people can become genuine friends if we stop posturing and taunting and start listening to one another. As president-elect Biden said in his victory speech, cooperating with each other is a choice we make. If we can choose not to cooperate, we can also choose to cooperate. I am pleased that you adjusted your thinking about the BLM Movement in recent months.
This is truly a Thankful Thursday. Yours was made sweeter when you met and chatted at length with that kind Russian Lyft driver.
Enjoy your Friday and weekend, dear friend JM!
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