Dealing with surprises

It’s the morning after the election, and for a lot of us it comes with a surprising result. For some it may be more than just surprising. But what does it mean?

When my daughter Stella was 17 days old she started having seizures. At 21 days old she had a brain bleed. We walked into the hospital with a child that was acting wrong, and we came out with a child with significant cognitive and physical injuries. It was surprising and emotionally devastating, but we were also glad and hopeful. Stella was alive.

When you book a trip on an airline there’s always a chance of surprises. The flight might be delayed. It may be diverted. Your luggage may be lost. But those are all incidental to getting to where you’re going. And it’s always the stories about the delays, the diversions, and the bad weather that we remember and that we talk about.

I would invite my friends that are dismayed by these election results to look at this as what it is, not as what they fear. This is not the end of our union or the end of our way of living. For those of us that worry about research funding, this could be a delay in some of our efforts. But our country is still strong, and we are just on a road that is somewhat unexpected.

What I would tell you is that living with Stella these past 11 years has been glorious. She made us learn a new language, learn new ways of getting from point A to point B, and she has required us to slow down a bit. Our lives are not better or worse than the life we had envisioned before her injury – it’s just different.

The same applies today. My candidate didn’t win, but the winner was another American. He has a different road he wants us to travel, but it’s another American road. It’s not alien – it’s one of our roads, and, especially in this instance, it’s one we haven’t gone down before.

So this morning I’ll say a prayer for our country, for our new President Elect, and for the road we’re about to travel. And, if the road is problematic, I’ll work to change it again in 2 years, in 4 years, or whenever it feels wrong. But I’ll also do what I can to make the road we’re on as productive as I can, and I’ll keep working on those advocacy efforts that are important to my lung cancer community.

We certainly do live in surprising times!

Very good article and helps keep things in perspective.

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