It’s over. The presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is mercifully over. Look, forget who won or lost, just for a moment. If your candidate won, you’re still smiling and gloating. If your candidate lost, you’re still researching real estate in Canada. I get it. It’s been a tough one on all of us. It’s been emotional. It’s been trying. It’s tested us, individually and as a nation.
But mercifully — whether you won or lost — there is this: We can all start to get our lives back.
This election has been all-consuming — as if the oxygen was sucked from the room. We spent the past year or two straining for breath. It’s felt like that. Without making light of it — without trying to sweep under the rug what is a major victory for some and a difficult-to-heal loss for the rest — we at least don’t have to listen to speeches anymore.
So in the spirit of moving on — at your own pace — I suggest a few things to fill your time now that you don’t have to worry about the election, or hanging on endless polls, or watching all those TV pundits you couldn’t stand anyway.
• Have a meal with your family where you actually feel present again — not worrying about this statement or that poll. We been so invested in this election that dinner conversation has become background noise. Something we’ve heard, but not really taken part in. You know what? The most important words you hear should be the ones taking place right at your dining room table. Tune in to THAT.
• Make a backyard fort for your kids with all the election signs piled up and littering the county. They should go to some good use. It’s a great way to show that politics can come to something tangible.
• Grow back all the hair you pulled out. Election night was tough, wasn’t it?
• Get some sleep. I mean REAL sleep. Not the kind where you wake up in the middle of the night screaming, “Did so-and-so win? Do I have to move to Canada? I don’t even speak Canadian! Why didn’t I take Canadian in school!?!”
• Get a new addiction. A useful one. Like basket weaving. Helping the elderly. Reading a book. Going out and making a difference in the world instead of expecting someone else to do it. You know what struck me about this election? That as a country we uniformly agreed on one thing: we were stuck with two weak candidates. A choice between worse and worse-er. But I know some pretty amazing people. America is filled with them. YOU are them. Get out there! Give us something to be excited about. Lead. Do good. Be better.
• And if all else fails, start worrying about the next election. Start reading endless polls and watching all those pundits you couldn’t stand anyway. After all, it’s only 4 years away.