Trump vs. My Relationships
Donald J. Trump is having a rotten impact on relationships in my life.
That’s a sentence (among many) I never thought I’d be saying[^1].
A while back my wife and I had taken to occasionally asking each other questions from the Ungame at night before bed. It was a nice slow-down from the day, often interesting and often funny. We’re doing it almost very night now because it gives us something to talk about that isn’t Trump or politics, topics which get us both steaming and frustrated.
My in-laws are in town and I know they voted for Trump. I love them dearly and know why they voted the way they did. It doesn’t take away the sting of knowing I can’t really talk about or process the election with them without causing more harm than good. I may yet get to where I can be civil about it, but that’s not yet.
I’m mostly off Facebook these days. Seeing family, church friends, and people in my wider network sharing pro-Trump posts - I’ve even seen Breitbart links - just discourages me to no end. It literally saps my will to even engage on the platform. I haven’t deleted FB yet from my phone but I’ve thought about it.
I’m conflicted. My inner demons are hassling me about being a rich white whiner, but I’m also just depressed and I’m having a hard time figuring out how to get through this.
[^1]: I would have assumed that if I were ever discussing any impact Trump had on my life, it would be a negative impact, but not for the reasons we’re now discussing.