Politics Is Ebb and Flow. Humanity Doesn't Have To Be.

​I work for the state of Virginia. Which means, in a sense, the people of Virginia elected a new boss for me last night. A new boss who has a different political party than the old boss.

This isn’t my first time experiencing that kind of change. I’ve been at this job long enough to know that when leadership shifts, so do strategies. Visions. Priorities.

Sometimes policies do, too.

But what doesn’t change, or at least doesn't have to, is my capacity and commitment to show up for the people I serve. At my job and in my life.

What worries me, though - more and more - is how much the way we show up for one another seems to rise and fall with the political tides. Politics has always been an ebb and flow - right and left, up and down, victory and loss. That’s the rhythm of politics.

But should it be the rhythm of our humanity?

I don’t think so.

If we only show up when our side wins, or if we find our hearts demoralized when our side loses, then we miss the bigger calling.

We aren't elected to care, we choose to. It's not a blue choice or a red choice or an anything in between choice.

It's an OUR choice.

I watched the election results with interest last night. But none of that interest was based on figuring out how I am going to show up for the world today.

We put a lot of stock in who is in charge. I get it. Leadership matters. But when who is in charge of a city or a state or a country starts to diminish my knowing that no one but me is in charge of my heart - well, that can become problematic.

It can come to mean my heart has to wait until the next election to fully show up, and that's just now how humanity is supposed to work.