Musings: Upside Down

As always, nature restores when humanity disappoints.

Up and out as the sun peeks over the soft, blue curve of the New Mexico mountains, desert lavender in the distance, golden rays lighting up the coppery leaves of cottonwood trees. Infused with joy, and beauty, I forget, for a moment, that Trump was elected president.

Until a murder of jet black crows joins me in walking through the silvery-white sparkle of the season's first frost, and in unison, they scream. Chicken skin.

Back at the house, eyes burning from too little sleep, too much time staring at a screen filled with disturbing news and equally troubling responses — “Mr. President, string up the elitists, and Obama, from the Twin Towers memorial!” — I fill my biggest mug with coffee.

“The world just turned upside down,” a Kauai friend texted me late last night.

Yes. And now we'll watch all the unforeseen — and foreseen — consequences rain down like change falling from the pockets of those riding the Tilt-a-Wheel.

A 1987 song, with its eerily prescient/perennially relevant lyrics, keeps playing through my mind:

How many times have we been in this place, watching the unfolding of choices that stem from disaffection, alienation, intolerance, fear?

A Facebook friend, and Trump supporter, had posted, hours earlier:

The liberal media just can't admit that Trump's message resonated with the voters.

It's not that, so much, as the difficulty of comprehending that a mad man's message of racism, sexism and denialism resonated with so many.

But then, I've never been good at taking the public pulse, being far too inclined to optimism, to believing in the best of human nature, even when repeatedly confronted with the worst.

So the die is cast. And all we can do is wait, and watch, to see how it all unfolds. Still, it's hard to be hopeful. When you start with junk ingredients, you can't expect a tasty result.

My Facebook feed, populated primarily with people I do not actually know, offered some interesting insights into the public psyche.

There were the dreamers: “We must restore our nation now!” As in the Hawaiian Kingdom. Uh, good luck with that.

There were the idiots: “Bernie would've kicked his ass.” Ya, an old white guy is always the solution. Like a nation that embraced Trump would have accepted a socialist, if only they'd been given the chance.

There were those who, blessedly, elicited laughter: “For all of you intending to move to Canada this evening, my phone lines are overwhelmed at this time. However, I'll be listing your property in a timely manner. Your patience is appreciated.”

And: “Btw, (in closing) just remember: none of us is panicking as bad as trump is right now.”

And: “Did somebody slip me acid?”

And: "Hey trump: wanna hire me? I'm a white male. And now I'm angry."

There were the laments of the once smug “Hillary's not good enough for me” crowd: “Let's be honest, tonight we have seen solid proof of the racism, sexism and xenophobia that so many of us have been privileged enough to live blindly to – at a scale one can no longer deny.” Oh, so now you finally get it.

There was the utter dispair: “I want to die right now.”

There were the gloaters: "The prols have said FUck the system." And themselves, while they're at it.

There was the overseas view: “Brexit 2.0.”

And from the state elections office, there was this glimmer of good news:

YES!!!! Hooser is finally OUT! Hallelujah! And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Though I haven't supported her for years, I'm actually glad that JoAnn's long political career didn't end in defeat. Now she can serve out her final term and move on. I am sorry that KipuKai lost to Mason, but apparently some folks still believe Mason deserves (yet another) chance. Redemption, anyone?

Unfortunately, Maui didn't learn from Kauai's mistakes. The dolts there elected Hawaii Center for Food Safety puppets Alika Atay, Kelly King, Elle Cochran and Don Guzman to their County Council. It wasn't a full CFS sweep, but they've got enough antis on board to muck things up for a while.

The Big Island, too, elected another anti-GMO zealot — Eileen Ohara.

And so the Medusa of fear, denialism, deliberate misinformation, wishful thinking and intolerance continues to rear its ugly head in the deep blue Aloha State. These dynamics know no political boundaries.

In closing, I'll leave you with the words of a friend who, though sick at heart, found inspiration to go on. Because what else, really, can you do?

Today, let’s rededicate ourselves to kindness, to generosity, to difference, to complexity, to respect, and to reason. We rededicate ourselves to hard work, to vision, and most of all, to love.

Or something like that.