It’s Time for Results—and Courage

Whoever wins the election, the path ahead won’t be easy

I went for a walk midday today and found embedded in a tree an old sign indicating that the area, more than 100 miles from New York City, was “City of New York Water Supply Property.” It reminded me that every city is a miracle of infrastructure, and every civilization the product of millions of unheralded moments of building—some of which last, and some of which are lost or abandoned.

The 2020 election results will come soon enough. But I know for many of us, as we have grappled with anxiety over its outcome and fear for our futures, the real question that lies before us is one of courage. Will we have the courage to find a path for ourselves in whatever comes next? And not just for ourselves but for those we love—our families and communities and cultures and co-religionists. Whoever wins, it is hard to imagine that easier days in this divided nation lie ahead in the near future.

It has been a traumatic year. I’ve covered elections dating back to 1996, when I attended my first national political convention as a student, and have never seen the nation face an election so riven, so troubled, and so tense. Instead of telling you to breathe—this year has been so much about breathing, and who has the ability to do that—I will share only this thought I turn to: Each of us is the living end of the tree of life, the descendent of whatever and whoever was strong enough to survive. That means that every generation of…