What Next

Sorryeverybody.com made me laugh. It made me feel better. It also made my heart hurt. A lot.

This blog is about and inspired by my father. He was one of the many, many true patriots who worked hard and took great risks to make America live up to the promises of its democratic ideals. It's incredibly painful to be witness to the dismantling of their numerous accomplishments. And it's barely begun.

My father had a knack for mentoring people in the age set about 20 years younger than him. One of his younger friends wrote this to me in an email yesterday: "And, just for a sweet bit of info. in difficult times--your parents taught me more about friendship than anybody else in my life, a lesson I will never forget." That's part of the work right now, teaching each other about friendship.

Those of you who don't know me in real life don't know that my wife lost her job on Friday. If you haven't read my about page, you may not know that I've been the stay at home parent, taking care of our son (now 21 months old) during the day. On Wednesday morning when I heard the awful news about our elections I said to myself, when I start working outside the home full-time I have to do political work. What else is there to do now?

Ruth and I have decided that it's my turn to work outside the home and her turn to spend the days with our little guy, so it looks like that imagined future work life may start sooner than I thought.

Tonight when my yoga class was over and we were all putting on our coats to go outside into Cambridge's unseasonable cold I was talking to a classmate who is also looking for work. I remembered that she was trying to get out of academic research and into something in the nonprofit sector. I told her the decision I came to on Nov. 3. With a look of instant recognition, she said, "we should talk," and we exchanged contact info. I hope this is contagious and that there are others of you out there networking, too. We've got a lot of work to do.

Something to consider if you're among the newly radicalized. Look around for the folks who fought the battles before this one. They've got things to teach us. Also, they need our friendship and we need theirs.

Love,

Ben