My daughter woke up next to me and I told her, "there's some bad news in the world, but I want you to know it's going to be ok."
She replied, "Trump won, didn't he?"
"Yes, and it's going to be ok. We are going to keep being us. We are going to be even better versions of ourselves. We are going to show love and kindness. We are going to treat people with kindness regardless of how they look or act. We are going to watch and make decisions for ourselves."
"But we've never seen his real skin color!"
"It would hurt if somebody said something like that about me." [I might have had to suppress a smile.]
She understood quickly and was ok with this for a bit. Then she said, "What if he stops letting women work?"
"That's not going to happen" [because he wouldn't want to have to support me without a j-o-b.] "Do you remember your care bear? Do you remember the cartoon show? When the bears were afraid, they joined together and they sent out light from their hearts, and everything was ok."
She was ok with this for a bit too. "We still have the electoral college on December 9."
"That's probably not going to change anything."
And she cried. [gut punch]
Fast forward: Driving home tonight, this beautiful rainbow appeared on top of a pink sky. It appeared to be bright, radiant light erupting from the sunset. I edited up the saturation to match my memory of the moment. This happened about the time I read some words from Hillary. As soon as I got my baby girl in front of me again, I delivered the message.
To all the little girls watching...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful & deserving of every chance & opportunity in the world.
I choose to love. I will choose to do good things. My little girl is forever watchful, hopeful, and worthy. Care Bear Stare.
