“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”
While many of my fellow Americans have been celebrating the results of the 2024 Presidential Election, I cannot. I’ve struggled to reconcile with reality, unwilling to acknowledge what I’ve witnessed and experienced about humanity lately.
In short, electing a president who is blatantly racist, homophobic, sexist, elitist, and narcissistic means much of society sees nothing wrong with his rhetoric. They downplay messages of hate against our fellow Americans as nothing more than amusement at the expense of those who are deemed unworthy in a society led by wealthy white supremacists.
Such overt behavior will deepen divisions in our nation, undermining society’s significant progress in embracing diversity and providing opportunities for all. While those who celebrate the results of the 2024 Presidential Election may dismiss the dismantling of a civilized society willing to embrace our differences, I suspect their naivety will ultimately come back to haunt them.
For a long time, I believed that society was made up of decent individuals who embodied compassion and humility. However, the 2024 Presidential Election has shattered that belief. Now, I find myself judging my fellow Americans not by their voting choices but by what those choices reveal about their character, and that’s a distressing place to inhabit daily.
Although I’ve stopped consuming news from various online sources to protect my mental health, I still felt lost in a sea of hopelessness, struggling to regain my previous positivity about the country I’ve called home for the last 50 years.
Inspired by Lamott’s words that “hope begins in the dark,” I turned to the one thing that always helped reframe my thoughts away from life’s unpleasantness: music. In this case, more specifically, Christmas music.
From classic crooners like Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby to church choirs and beautifully arranged instrumentals, the familiar melodies that had become such a big part of my yuletide traditions over the years managed to chip away at my cynicism and replace it with nostalgia.
Christmas music played while I was in the shower, in the car, and even when I was cleaning the house or working from home. It served as a joyful form of therapy, reminding me how inspiring the holidays have always been for me and my family, especially the women I’ve shared the last 23 Christmases with.
Could it be that I was starting to realize that hope begins in the dark?
While the Christmas music was undoubtedly helpful to both my wife and me as we navigated these times of uncertainty and distress, we were about to discover another way to help brighten our spirits, quite literally.
Growing up, bringing out the Christmas decorations from the basement before Thanksgiving Day was over was considered blasphemy. In the 1980s, retail stores and businesses followed similar practices. However, I noticed that Christmas trees and decorations are prominently featured in stores as early as August.
For the entire 23 years of our marriage, my wife and I have always waited until the Friday after Thanksgiving to decorate our house for Christmas. While this tradition was deeply rooted in both of our families, everything changed following the 2024 Presidential Election.
My wife and I were feeling down and a bit stuck in our emotions, struggling to find joy in the familiar tasks or experiences that usually lifted our spirits. Soon, we found ourselves staring at a Christmas tree in a spare bedroom closet. Each of us was thinking the same thing, but neither was fully prepared to say the words on our minds: “Let’s put up the Christmas tree!”
We decided to visit a few retail stores to pick up some items we remembered needed replacing from last year’s holiday season. We thought this would be enough to brighten our spirits.
Surprisingly, the aisles filled with Christmas merchandise were crowded with other shoppers, all filling their carts with holiday décor. The scent of spiced pine cones wafted through the air, creating an atmosphere of inspiration and delight, as we speculated that others might be struggling with their mental health as well, given the circumstances.
It became clear that shopping for holiday decorations was an effective way to uplift one’s mood, and it worked for us.
As we loaded the car, now listening to our favorite Christmas classics on the stereo, my wife and I decided that we would do something that made us happy once we got home. Although we were breaking our long-standing rule of not putting up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, our excitement made us feel it was the right decision.
As Christmas music played softly in the background, with decorations, ribbons, and berry picks scattered across the floor, we took our time enjoying the holiday process of transforming the barren green conifer tree into a festive display.
While we always enjoy decorating the tree, this year, we truly appreciated our time together and the magical holiday memories we were creating, stepping outside the traditional routine we had followed for so many years. This break from our usual holiday ritual enhanced our enjoyment and satisfaction as we stood a few feet away, admiring what we had just created.
With all the lights in the room off and the sun fully set behind the mountains, the strands of white lights illuminated before us reminded us that hope begins in the dark. Hope truly helps light the way as we navigate through the challenges we face.
As I write this post, I sit next to the Christmas tree we decorated above, which brightens the end of each day like a majestic lighthouse guiding ships home to safety.
The green branches, red berries, carefully placed ornaments, and hundreds of white lights casting a peaceful glow throughout the room remind us of the importance of creating a safe haven in our homes.
It is a place to escape life’s chaos, disappointments, and unpredictability, helping us understand that hope begins in the dark, but it also starts with us.
While the integrity of our country may be questioned over the next four years, it’s important to remember that everything is temporary. Hope often begins in the dark and will grow brighter as more people realize that, at times, hope is all we have to cling to.
Whatever helps you regain hope in your life—even if that means breaking long-held traditions and putting up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving—I encourage you to do it.
We all encounter mental health challenges and societal pressures, often as a result of unexpected events, such as the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election. It’s crucial to look beyond despair and negativity and to remember the many things we have to be thankful for.
American author and activist Rebecca Solnit writes, “Your opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.”
Well said, Craig. Whatever it takes to hold on to our values and sanity. All the best, Karen