I’ve previously admitted my addiction to the West Wing. When life gets stressful, I curl up in front of Netflix in my doggie jammies and see what wisdom Jed Bartlet has for me.
Throughout the series, he has a question for his staff when he’s done talking about the matter at hand. That question is, “what’s next?” He sometimes has to make it pretty clear that he is done with the previous conversation and is ready to move on.
So here we are. The election was over in November, we have a new president who was inaugurated on Friday. Over a million of people marched Saturday in a show of support for women’s rights and human rights. It seems that there has been a peaceful transfer of power, followed by a peaceful protest. All good stuff.
But on Facebook it appears that the election is still going on.
We are where we are.
So my question is…what’s next?
What’s next is that we take action about those things we care about. Simply doing no harm is not action. Believing the right things is not action. Sharing thoughts and articles on Facebook is not action. Action is taking intentional steps to bring about positive change.
Here’s how I see that happening:
- Pray for God’s guidance
- Find a group of people who are also interested in taking action to bring about positive change
- Learn, pray, and plan together about how to work with a specific issue
- Be prepared to commit time and resources
- Implement the plan and continue praying for guidance and strength
- Celebrate the joy of transformation for ourselves and our community
We have some groups at my church that are doing this. They are bringing their whole selves to study, prayer and conversations about how to make positive change without doing harm by walking with people who have cancer, partnering with a church in Cuba, and alleviating poverty in our community. We are putting together a team to reach out to people who have been hurt and marginalized by the church to bring about healing and reconciliation. Pretty amazing stuff.
We can’t do this if we are sniping at each other on social media. There are people in my church that I’m sure hold completely opposite political views from me, but it has never come up because of the important work we are doing together. We simply have stuff to do and that takes everything we have to get it done. If it becomes relevant to the work we are doing together, we will have the conversation, but arguing over support of politicians just isn’t something we have time for right now.
Good Morning. Yes, I stayed home and watched on Friday, and then went to a celebration dinner in Cocoa that evening. One thing that my husband said during the dinner, was that anyone of the 400+ attendees in that room could go into any of the homes of any of the attendees, walk thorough, and NOTHING WOULD BE MISSING. We were all of the same mindset, and would trust each other and be trustworthy to each other. Somehow that isn’t the case in other organized groups!!!
Anyhow, yes, I was a “women’s libber” back in the day. I lived in NYC, in the 60’s, when the Women’s March down 5th avenue happened. However I was an officer of a corporation which owned radio stations all over the eastern US. Why? Because I worked, and knew what I was doing, and was the proper person for the job, not someone who expected everything or anything to be given to her. I was one of the first officers of the Central Brevard NOW group. I did my time, I got what I wanted in life, and if a man “took advantage of me”, well, believe me, I got the best of the deal.. Men were/are so stupid sometimes….!
Anyhow, as a final rant this morning, AND I DON’T KNOW WHY I AM DUMPING ON YOU, BECAUSE YOU ARE MY FRIEND!! They are whining about women not having equal opportunities in their jobs. Tell that to Debra Clayton. She sure had an equal opportunity, along with the male officers, to be killed on the job.!!!
And I don’t mean this to denigrate her services, it’s just that there are opportunities to make something of yourself, Ladies. Don’t expect it to be handed to you w/o you yourself putting a big contribution of “self” into the pot. Let’s say, please God, Trump brings back the jobs that were moved out of the country, will the unemployed snowflakes have the knowledge or ability or willingness to DO THOSE JOBS??? I can see it now, they have college educations, which have prepared them for something, but not for actually engaging in productive work.
Please forgive me if this is not something you wanted to read, I guess, I trust you to be able to open up like this.
Love, Claire….
CLAIRE A GAMBAO-ZUHLKE, EA, CFP 1980 N ATLANTIC AVE, #614 COCOA BEACH, FL. 32931 321-783-6773
Great read along with a blog from Dayle Rogers this morning. Thank you! I will be sharing your words of wisdom Ann
I am delighted that you are so happy where you are, and that you have found a favorite program to enjoy. And you are all right, what is the point of discussing politics, the election is over…live with it! Love ya, Sue Brady