Weekend self-care open thread: A celebration of Joe Biden

My friends, happy weekend.

This is the final weekend before Donald Trump once again assumes office. I know we all dread this. I know many of us can't see any way out of this.

But I'm here to tell you, and speaking only for myself: My days of mourning are over.

And this weekend, I come not to mourn Joe Biden, but to celebrate him.

I come not to mourn what could have been, but to look forward to what will be.

I come not to cry out to the wind, but to sing up to the heavens.

These next four years will not be easy. But we will survive them. 

I haven't watched much of The Handmaid's Tale, because, well, I'm not into torture porn. But I did catch a bit of one episode. June tells another Handmaid who is despondent, who is about to throw herself from a bridge, that this will pass. That this will not last forever. That one day they will be free, and laugh, and sing, and have a beer.

My friends, we will be free, and laugh, and sing, and have a beer. We will do all those things while the creature and his demons are in office. Because we are stronger than they are. All they have is hate. We have joy and hope.

My city is in ruins. And I've been despondent. I won't lie. But we will rebuild. We will recover. We will return stronger. What is true for my city is true for us. Is true for this country. Is true for this world.

Joe Biden has not stopped working one day as his term winds down. He secured a cease-fire to the Gaza War. He proclaimed that the Equal Rights Amendment had been enacted. He commuted the sentences of most prisoners on the federal death row. He sent more aid to Ukraine. He released the final monies for the American Recovery Act. He continued to work. And why? Because he has faith and hope. Faith in this country. Hope that the darkness is a passing thing. Light always comes. It may seem far off. It may seem as if it will never arrive. But it will arrive. We will get out of this dark time. 

And why? Because the human future belongs to us. It does not belong to those who wish to oppress and subjugate. We are past that dynamic as a species. We will not bend the knee to our authoritarian overlords. We will not give ourselves over to a tech oligarchy. They have money. We have numbers. La gente unida jamas sera vencida. As that great Republican said: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. I believe this in my bones. I know this in my heart. So does Joe Biden. He has lived his life by these words. His actions attest to this. Yes, some people will always be fooled. They are beyond redemption. But a great awakening is coming. A great sundering from the past is coming. Human destiny is not to fade from this earth. Human destiny is to fulfill the promise we have as a species. I see it. I feel it.

Joe Biden departs from the stage. But what he fought for does not. We will not forget him. We will honor and cherish him. He answered the call when his country needed him, and he saved this Republic. That the people turned their backs on him is a stain on their honor; it is no reflection on him. We are in an age where fact is fiction, and TV reality. But that, too, shall pass. We all know it; we all want something which is real, which is tangible. We can have only so much of bread and circuses before we choke on them.

Think of the things that were acceptable fifty years ago which are not now. And no amount of our enemies wishing them, working for them to become acceptable again will make them so. They will not be. We will rise above them, and we will leave them in our wake.

Joe Biden always says to "keep the faith." Now we must carry his torch. This is not a task for the weak. This is not a task for the weary. I've been weary up until this week. I am in no way weary now. Do not be weary. Do not be fearful. We still have a world to save, even if the path is harder. We still have a world to save, even if we have to do it alone. We still have a world to save, because that is what we were put here to do. We are the ones we've been waiting for; there is no one else but us.

Godspeed, Joe. We will prove ourselves worthy of you. It will take a few years, but we will get there. Your life of service has not been in vain. We will keep that faith.

As always, dear friends, be ever kind, gentle, and joyful with yourselves and those around you. Be free. Laugh. Sing. And have a beer.