I don’t have answers if you’re looking for ways to organize and push back against Trump’s policies, but I have a few suggestions for what might help heal your soul.
Listen to Bach and Debussy
Music can hit your brain unlike anything else. Debussy and Bach in particular are just otherworldly.
Bask in Individual Human Excellence
It’s good to remember that we as a species are capable of incredible things. What brings this feeling out in you will be different for everyone, but for me Shakespeare sonnets, Lil Wayne, LeBron and Messi skills highlights as well as Phillip Seymour Hoffman acting have helped.
That time of year thou may’st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-and-by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Work Out
Cardio is a godsend.
Meditate
I wrote about it here.
Read Some History of 20th Century Governments Doing Truly Awful Things
Even with a President Trump, there is so much to be thankful for when reflecting on America’s system of government. Check out Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, an incredible book detailing the international history of mass death in Eastern Europe from the end of WWI through WWII. Frank Dikotter’s Mao’s Great Famine is an unbelievable tale of a headstrong Mao wielding absolute power to pursue policies that starved fifty million of his own people in peacetime. Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror on Stalin’s purges are similarly frightening.
This, of course, is not to excuse Trump for his failings, but rather help remind us that it could get so, so much worse.
Read Some Psalms
Even if you’re aggressively atheist, psalms are universal and some of the most beautiful poetry mankind has create. They articulate so many of the most core human emotions — helplessness, pleading, longing, love, hope.
Go to this site and play around with the different translations until you find some that hit the tone you’re looking for. King James is undeniably beautiful but plenty of others are serviceable if you’d prefer something more modernized.
A taste — Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying,
He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
Go to a zoo and play with a baby
There are billions of organisms on the planet that have no idea what happened on November 8th. Babies are adorable and by the time they know what’s what Trump won’t be president.
