The Day After

This is the day after a big national elec­tion. Being a stu­dent of human behav­ior, I am sen­si­tive how social events affect me, as well as oth­ers. No mat­ter how detached I may try to be, I still feel the national mood. We are some­how mys­ti­cally all con­nected. The world seems to stop and hold its breath for elec­tions, the Super Bowl, Christ­mas, Thanks­giv­ing, Fourth of July, and New Year’s. The day after one of those events every­one breathes a deep sigh of relief. These are “marker” days. We look for­ward to them but are glad when they pass. We go back to our jobs and start look­ing for the next marker upon which to hang our hopes and fears.

I also call these days after “cul­tural hang­over” days (and there are many types of hang­overs: infor­ma­tion over­load, enter­tain­ment over­load, vaca­tion over­load, work-a-holism rebounds, etc.). Peo­ple look for­ward to an event. They invest a lot of emo­tions. When the event is over, there is empti­ness and some sense of vic­tory, defeat, or just sim­ple relief (like when you are dri­ving away from your in-laws house after Thanks­giv­ing). Today every­one needs two aspirin and a lot of water. The day after has come. Life goes on as normal.

Per­son­ally, I min­i­mize all hol­i­days and grand social phe­nom­e­non. I like step­ping aside and detach­ing into my own lit­tle world of spir­i­tual aware­ness. These spe­cial days are not unim­por­tant, but I have dis­cov­ered that I get more out of them by not get­ting too much into them. I pre­fer to observe. Last year I kept up with the Super Bowl on my com­puter, while I worked. My team won. I cheered to myself. I did not have to come back to the office on Mon­day morn­ing feel­ing tired or behind. Being “in the world but not of the world” is one of my favorite Chris­t­ian perspectives.

You prob­a­bly will not find me in a street riot after a ball­game or protest­ing or pro­mot­ing any­thing that requires vio­lence (ver­bal or oth­er­wise) to get a point across. I need not recruit oth­ers to feel as I feel or think as I think; I dis­trust all mob actions — regard­less of the cause. Oth­ers do not have to hold my opin­ions for me to be secure. It is the day after, and I have already for­got­ten the day before. I have a feel­ing that my life is about some­thing else.