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Nov 9, 2020Liked by Luke O'Neil

You know, man, I am very happy about all this, truly, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it, too. Four years is a long time. Once the key bump joy that comes from remembering how sad we've made that fuckface and from imagining a better and more just future that does not involve the Trumps in charge fades, I get real sad about everything we've lost, in both time and opportunity, and everybody we've lost. I have a kid that's three and a half who's never known another world, never known his parents to be anybody other than these constantly stressed out weirdoes we've become. He goes to K3 now via a laptop in our sunroom, while his older brother does K5 kindergarten via a laptop in our dining room, and it's become my job, in addition to being a stay-at-home dad, to be their teachers' hands and eyes and ears. To print out the worksheets, to make them do the activities, to keep them busy and "focused on school" (again, they're 3 and 5). Their mom works from home, as well, over a laptop in our upstairs guest room, has since St. Paddy's Day and (thanks, bonus structure!) makes about half to two-thirds what she did in February. We've haven't been able to enjoy a night out together without concern since the first week of March, and we live in a state that's one of the worst places on Earth for Covid, and has been for two months. Some days it's all I can do not to cry. Is 77-year-old Establishment Hero Joe Biden getting elected President going to help us out with any of this? I hope so, and I think so, but it's a long road back to where we were four years ago, and even that wasn't *that* great, considering it set the stage for everything that came afterward. This is a great big win, monumental in scope and potential, but I'm just so tired. I think we all are.

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