Post-electoral depression

Twelve days now, since the big election: the "defining moment" of our times. Where now is the elation?

I gaze out the window at the gray sky ... nah, I went running yesterday, I can't do it again today. I glance at the pages of the New York Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, spread all over my living room floor ... no, I've read it all. I flip on the TV, but the world has not changed. Stories about gang murders and drug busts and wild fires and earthquakes ... along with still more footage of a perky Sarah Palin. Even the Faux News anchors, their pre-electoral fury momentarily doused by reality, sound too dull to be interesting.

Same old, same old.

Every December, the young Rainier96 would count down the days and hours to the magic moment of Christmas. And every Christmas evening, or the next day at the latest, our young hero would feel the same vague, inevitable sense of disappointment. "Is this all there is? I waited so long!" So also feels the corporate employee, I imagine, after he finally makes vice president, and the author after he finishes celebrating the conclusion of his book. Doctors even give a medical diagnosis to the sadness felt by some mothers after giving birth, ending nine months of waiting for their child: "post-partum depression."

Even "defining moments" in history cause only incremental changes in our daily lives. Yes, political decisions have real consequences. They will effect real long-term improvements in our lives and in our children's lives. But the political victories themselves do not validate our lives in any satisfying manner, any more than do the successes of our favorite sports teams. As always -- whether we live within a democracy, a monarchy, a dictatorship, or a tribe -- contentment comes from a sense of belonging within our universe, and from our community with other people.

And even with the most integrated of personalities, with the best adjusted of lives, enjoying the warmest of friendships, we may feel discontent following long-awaited triumph, a discontent apparently hard-wired into our brains.

Some folks handle it by going shopping. Others find it helps to add a post to their blog.