Choose a Side

Sometimes, fire must be met with fire in order to prepare to face whatever gauntlet has been thrown down. On the national political front, one was thrown down a while ago, though many may still spend time parsing out exactly when that was. At this point, the “when” doesn’t matter. The gauntlet is clearly there and now it’s time to face this reality and decide which side of it we each are truly on. That surely occurred in Nazi Germany, when many people in France, for example, joined and became “The Resistance” to fight Hitler’s tyranny. I am struggling still with “resisting,” though I know that who I am and how I live is already considered resistance in certain quarters. I also know this: outside of my job role as psychotherapist, I have little time and energy to try and convince Trump supporters to think, feel, and act differently than they currently do. I am on a certain side of the gauntlet. And to those who are working still on softening hearts and educating minds towards becoming more compassionate and broad-thinking respectively, well good for you and thank you. I’ll do that here and there on the job as a clinical social worker. But, outside of that, in my personal life, I’ve simply committed to protecting my rights and others’, uncivil as that may indeed sometimes be. You ain’t seen nothin’ from me yet.