The shock is gone.  I think. Although yesterday I had been distracted for a few hours and then I suddenly remembered. My heart sank. I had dealt with a few deaths recently. This was another one. The death of what seemed like everything we know to be right and correct. The death of what we see as reality. The death of hopes and dreams and a simple comfort level.

Since 9/11 life has been different in this country. I remember the 90’s and they seemed normal and relaxed. Traveling was good and fun and stress free. Living was stress free. We made good money and could get jobs fairly easily and things were reasonably priced including housing and groceries. Life seemed kind of fair. We were young and would live forever. Or so it seemed.

Then 9/11 and the whole world changed. It was in the air. And slowly with the internet helping, the world became small and scary. Especially if you were an American. Wars began and jobs were lost. People were struggling. People were watching each other and there was a bad guy in our vision. Life became hard. We got older, our parents were even older and getting sickly. We became part of the sandwich generation.

Then there was hope. Then there was Obama. But then there were the haters who did not let him actually be the President and put a stop to letting him help us. It was a struggle. The feeling was in the air. The tea party arrived and slowly but surely it became normal and ok to hate and be rude and all the things we tell our kids not to be.

And now there was Trump.