Kamala Harris, Believing In A Woman President

Jon and I were at the Williamstown Theater  when in the middle of his  routine, almost in passing,   comedian Alex Edelman mentioned that Joe Biden has stepped down.

I laughed or at least smiled thought the whole show.  Edelman is smart and funny, edgy without being cruel.  I didn’t realize till it was over how good the performance made me feel.

In the car Jon checked the news to make sure it was true.  When I heard that Biden had stepped down and endorsed Kamala Harris I felt a lightness inside of me that I didn’t know I had been missing.  I felt relief and then hope.

Along with all of this I felt something else.

Something that stirred  deep inside of me at the prospect of having a woman who is Black and Asian as our next president.  This thing inside of me felt very old, as if I’ve carried it around for lifetimes.  “Finally” is the word that came to me, as if women are finally getting back this thing that had been taken away thousands of years ago.

And I think, although I don’t know for sure, even if the candidate was a woman wouldn’t vote for I’d feel the same.

At that moment, I decided I wouldn’t go to the dark places that are so easy to fall into. Not that I’d stick my head in the sand, but that I’d think of all the things that could go right instead of all the things that could go wrong.  I’d hold on to that feeling of hope and believe in Kamala Harris’s ability to be the next President of the United States. And that she’ll be really good at it.

Maybe all that laughter somehow helped.  Helped lift me up and set me on the path of possibility and made me want to stay there.