“You know, everybody has setbacks in their life, and everybody falls short of whatever goals they might set for themselves. That’s part of living and coming to terms with who you are as a person.” 

Hillary Clinton

 

Every day I see a new thread. I never consider that Dr Jane Goodall was ridiculed for believing in the personalities of animals. Now, of course, there are whole studies devoted to this and the communities culture which was so obvious to her. 

But then maybe we still don’t see the value of the personality quality in humans. That would be different. 

With so much at stake and the fact I seemed to recall 29 states had never voted for a woman – I did ask why did we put a woman forward with so much to lose? A question asked in my head because I knew there would be a very good answer – eventually. 

And then later I would ask along with much more esteemed people – How could women not vote for her? Or the bigger question – how could they possibly vote for the alternative? 

4 years thought – humans need a gradient. Conduction to change.

How different would this time look if a woman hadn’t run for president? Would we see the ugly today if she hadn’t been the choice? 

If a black man had lost to a racist – would we have got to our current point quicker? Or do we need the integrity of that family to act as our gauge? Change our narrow perceptions of possibility. 

Everything happens for a reason. Honestly, they do. Happenings provide those benchmarks that we seem so bad at creating in awareness for ourselves. 

To answer why women couldn’t vote for another woman we look from the much younger perspective of the 10 years olds of 2016. They were prepared to vote for the version which stood before them. Many don’t expect people to go on life journeys any more than they once believed animals to have personalities. 

Everyone’s actions are a reflection themselves. Not me. And certainly not the people standing before you for election. Especially women. They need to be a little more flawless. Though we’re still not sure what image that holds. We voted to measure our own warts. If we’d ever dug them out or just continued to let them grow. The person asking for your vote can’t ever have detoured from the perfect – because then you’d have to look at your own flaws. Women especially couldn’t do this ask. It was easier to stay unchanged. Even unrepresented.

My only worry is that yes, we need these gradients for change. But must they be so big for us to see? Increasingly, we seem to need such polarity to drive the gradient of change. We need comparison between Alaska and Mojave. You can’t see change until something so different presents. You can’t see the ugliness of your own choices without. And you can’t see the possibility before either, I fear.

Naoisé 23rd July 2020