The Morning After

 I sit with my coffee this morning, and I don't even know where to start. The best way to put it is that I am grieving. Plain and simple I am grieving. 

Tim and I talked about it a little. Elon Musk is telling people that there will be economic hardship and turmoil. He is expecting the stock market to crash. Since he's going to be the man in charge of all that, I think that we take him at his word. 

Tim said, "he says that housing costs are going to skyrocket." 

I said, "Why do you think that is?" 

He said, "I don't know." 

I said, "It is because the housing market is owned by rich people, who will be able to determine the market. These people will operate with impunity under the new status quo. A system is in place that will benefit them, and they will use it." 

We looked at each other for a moment. 

We are landlords. We know that our prices are more than fair, based on current area rents for other similar houses and apartments. We know that we could be making more. A long time back, we made a decision that this is a ministry of sorts. Using the Christian vernacular, we decided that if we bless our tenants, our tenants will bless us in return. And they do. Every tenant we've got is a long term tenant. We have avoided one of the biggest headaches of rental units: getting good tenants. Our tenants move in, and they stay. 

I said, "Well, this is the time for us to take a long look at what we intend to be. Do we become 'them', or do we remain true to ourselves and our beliefs?" 

And with those words, a great deal of the confusion in my own mind was lifted. I'm still sad. I am very sad. Unlike many, I fear that this presidency will be the end of our democracy. I grieve for that and the fact that my grandchildren will be living in a world that I don't understand. I grieve that millions of people who voted for change will get it. Unfortunately it will not be the change that anybody expected. It will not be the change that we hoped for. 

In the end, what will matter is kindness. Our kindness for each other, and our willingness to address need. We can't change the big things, but we can look around us and change the little things. We can help each other through this. 

Tim and I figured our own strategies for these days, and they don't vary much from how we always lived. 

Minimize waste. 

Minimize spending. 

Maximize saving for a rainy day because the rainy days are here. 

We cannot change the big picture. "Don't look!" Steve Reed said in a comment on another blog. That's the answer, I think. Important people will do their self serving work behind the scene. We need to shift our focus, turning it to what we can do: take care of each other. 

Don't look at them. Look at each other. 

That's it, really. That's all I have.