Hurt and Healing

Hurt takes a time to process. Even what can be called distant and attenuated hurt eventually has to be dealt with on a personal level.

Last week a political campaign I was intimately involved with failed. It failed I believe not on its merits but because the people who were promoting the campaign, of which I was one, were outplayed by a more savvy, more adaptable opponent. After the ballots were tabulated I was very angry. I was hurt.

It had taken a few months but by the time the vote came I was very invested in the cause. To some extent, although the actual question had to do with money to be paid to rebuild schools, I viewed the clear but not overwhelming no vote as a rejection of me, of what I stood for. But the outcome wasn’t about me no matter how my intellectual demons tried to convince me it was. It was simply one group of people fighting for a piece of real estate they believed in doing anything and saying anything that might block the effort to close their school, to vacate that property. I get that, I really do.

Vitriol and venom were spewed at me, but honestly I opted for this path. It is time now to deal with the hurt. Looking carefully around I must always remain thankful for the blessings I receive. There are many. The friends I have and the moments of joy I really have experienced even in this period are quite numerous.

To make things better I must try to be kinder, more open-minded, and more accepting of each and every other person I meet and experience. In going forward I must endeavor, I must work to eliminate barriers that exists between myself and among those I touch in any manner. I must work; I must endeavor to allow a meaningful togetherness to grow.

Hurt can be on a large scale, an amorphous disembodied sense of pain, or it can be very acute and personal. In either case I must always turn from the bitterness and look at what I can do to make things better.