We did it once before. We hope we can do it again.
After all, my retirement portfolio increased the first time. Sure, under Joe Biden’s watch the increase was greater, but that first gain ain’t nothing to sneeze at.
So I say to myself: Learn to live with the reality. I must repeatedly tell myself—Think of Number One. Don’t dwell on the fallout to democracy, international relations, the environment, the rule of law, immigration, access to reproductive rights and all aspects of health care, equal rights, the separation of church and state.
You’re 75. As long as the stock market doesn’t crash and missiles don’t rain down on America, how bad can it be?
Stop thinking globally, or nationally. Think just of yourself. That’s what a majority of Americans just did. They chose to reward personal fulfillment with little or no thought to the consequences they could unleash on America and the world.
But, I’m not sure I can stop thinking of others. My upbringing—from my parents, my education, my profession, my spouse, my friends, my religion, my spiritual leaders—instilled in me an ethos that transcends “Me.”
Can I survive the next four years and the potential transformation of a country for decades to come? Physically? For sure. I’ll play more pickleball. Watch more Netflix. Play more poker. Travel more. And when I cannot sleep through the night, play more solitaire.
Emotionally? I grieve for the future my children and grandchildren will have to persevere through. I have lived in an America Franklin Delano Roosevelt fashioned 80 years ago, an America that strived to shield its citizens from economic and ideological assaults.
The safety net FDR spun for America and the world is in jeopardy.
I am 75. I do not speak Yiddish. I know a smattering of Yiddish words. One sums up my, and possibly your, feelings at this moment:
Oy!!!
