היטלערן ווארפט עס אין היץ און קעלט און ער קאָן אונז קושן נאָר אין תּכת

[sovay]

I was woken shortly after noon by a spam call. It wanted to tell me there was a problem with the warranty of my nonexistent car. When I hung up on the spam, I saw that I had messages waiting from family and friends. They wanted to tell me Biden had won the election.

It does feel like the end of a war. Which means that what's ahead is the hard work of rebuilding—and building on, not merely settling for what we accepted once as the status quo. Too much of our government has still turned out to be three gentlemen's handshakes in a trenchcoat. Let's not do Reconstruction 2.0. Also we still have a plague.

But there is a new tree planted in the sidewalk out front of our apartment and I can think about a future that is not merely the endurance or resistance of destruction.

Just for the change, I think repairing things could be fun.

Comments

[sovay]

I would have called but it was well before noon and I did not want to die at the moment of victory!!

You would have been better than a robo-spam call, but I saw your text immediately after!

*hugs*

[selkie]

I thumb-typed on the pocket computer so fast. And then we were just crying and we made the AI play "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) and shouted along with the "We won!" parts.

It feels like now we won't have to do as much in spite.

[sovay]

It feels like now we won't have to do as much in spite.

Man, what is that even going to be like?

[selkie]

Dude, I can't tell you. I've spent all day realizing how awful and off-centering it had been to spend four years in constant crisis response mode. Like, we were aware of it happening to our bodies and minds but we couldn't escape it and now I.... I think I'll go make brownies? Something nice? Maybe donate to a senate race in Georgia once we can scratch up the cash?

What, in other words, the fuck do we do now?

[sovay]

What, in other words, the fuck do we do now?

Get through the rest of this year and live, I think. It is a strange thought.

[edit] The socialists this afternoon sang Jean Rohe's "Arise, Arise" and everyone just dissolved: "Till tyrants bow to the people's dream / And justice flows like a mighty stream."

[julian]

I like, *should* know that, but I don't think I did before? I mean, it's certainly appropriate! (Thank you.)

[sovay]

(Thank you.)

You're welcome! It was one of the last songs we were beginning to learn right before the pandemic happened. I hadn't known it before, either, and especially not that it was written in the last decade when I would otherwise have sworn that it came out of Rise Up Singing.

[selkie]

THAT IS THE MOST SOCIALIST THING I'VE EVER SEEN AND I WAS A REGISTERED SOCIALIST UNTIL FOUR YEARS AGO WHEN I FIGURED THERE WERE GONNA BE ROUND-UPS.

....Which there fucking aren't going to be anymore, keyn ayin hora.

*bawls messily*

I loathe your access to my gooey emotional center!

[sovay]

I loathe your access to my gooey emotional center!

For which I write demons and partisans!

*hugs, hugs*

[selkie]

Okay fine maybe I read something about that. I won’t blot my face on your fabulous t-shirt.

*hugs, hugs*

[owl]

There's a lot of work still to do (there always is), but for now, there's time to breathe. I'm enjoying seeing the Tories sulkily congratulate Biden too.

[sovay]

There's a lot of work still to do (there always is), but for now, there's time to breathe.

It does feel possible to, which is kind of amazing.

I'm enjoying seeing the Tories sulkily congratulate Biden too.

I can see that! I believe he still hasn't received congratulations from the major authoritarian suspects, but the way the rest of the world has been pouring on both appropriate ordinary acknowledgements of a president-elect and BRAVO ON PUTTING THE BRAKES ON YOUR DICTATOR has been very warming to watch.

[julian]

Dunno about Putin or North Korea, but both Bolsanaro in Brazil and Modi in India did. Only non-dictator type who hasn't is... AMLO in Mexico. He's waiting on lawsuits.

[sovay]

Dunno about Putin or North Korea, but both Bolsanaro in Brazil and Modi in India did.

I hadn't seen that! Okay, that's . . . A number of years ago, spatch and I were both woken early by a persistent bird call that I can't remember that we ever identified, but it was penetrating, repetitive, melodically not very interesting, and relentless. After we had lain awake for far too long trying to sleep through nature's equivalent of the beeping truck backing up, Rob finally shouted through the window, "SHUT UP, BIRD! NODODY WANTS TO FUCK YOU!"

That.

[julian]

*splorfles*