Westword, Volume XXXII

While I would sure love to regale you with another holiday poem or walk down memory lane, this year feels different. Not in a good way, either.
 
The election is behind us, but the divisions are not – and they may be worse than ever. The reds are redder, blues bluer, lines in the sand deeper. Words I’ve heard that would burn bridges: “This is the hill to die on.” “She’ll take your money away.” “He’ll take your freedoms away.” “God has spoken.” “I’m moving to Aruba.” All ridiculous (except maybe the Aruba one.)
 
It does not make a difference who won. If you need, I’ll say it twice. It does not make a difference who won. Readers, you oughta know: nearly the entirety of this column was written before the election anyway. Okay, so Harris Trump beat Trump Harris. Some of you are still apoplectic. Some are thrilled.
 
The loud rhetoric from the fringes hurts my brain. Helmet, you would think we were in a civil war; in statistical reality, a little over three people out of every 100 decided to vote the other way this time. That’s it. Seriously here…do you think that now our problems will be solved? Do you think that now our problems will be multiplied with devastating consequences?
 
Give me a break. Capitol Hill usually always moves at a glacially slow pace and is always usually fraught with corruption and side deals you’ll never know about. No one in Washington, D.C. cares about YOU, YOUR family, YOUR business, YOUR kids, YOUR school system. Not now, and they never will, and do not believe the noise!
 
Look. Maybe the end of a half-century is rushing towards me, just a season away now. Sometimes it feels as if the passage of time is trying to leave me in its wake. But I’m still in my prime, I’m sure of it (and as yet I have not gone out and made any large, unwise, unsanctioned purchases. Time will tell if I ever need a booster…) And I am getting real sick and tired of a small percentage of voices drowning out the rest of us. With some folks, you are discarded if you fall short of exactly 100 percent agreement.
 
Stop. Look around. You cannot impact everyone and you certainly cannot impact Washington. But you can make quite an impact right here. Look around. Look past the closed-minded people who curry hatred and burn bridges. Look around. There are more of US than THEM.
 
Ask my cousin El. We disagree on a few issues, such as…all of them. Yet I always love having a drink and conversation with her. And where we do find common ground usually involves what’s good for (here it is again!) YOUR town, YOUR family, YOUR local issues. Hills far apart. Bridges connecting them.
 
Taxes. Immigration. Guns. Reproductive rights. Church and state. We agree. We disagree. It doesn’t matter when our kids are trying to win the championship (right, Tom?) Think of everyone as that parent buddy cheering beside you. And let’s keep talking, keep trying.
 
Now indulge me – I did music last month and I swore I wouldn’t go to the well again, but it’s the holidays and, truth be told, you can’t stop me. So listen up:
 
In 1996, Garth Brooks released a single titled “The Change.” This was a year after the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing – ol’ Troyal was from Tulsa, after all – and the chorus went like this:
 
“I hear them saying/ you’ll never change things/ and no matter what you do/ it’s still the same things/ but it’s not the world that I, am changing/ I do this so/ this world we know/ never changes ME….”
 
This is what I speak of. Your voice matters and I encourage you to use it (constructively!) When you think it is drowned out, it is not. When you think you have no power, think again.
 
You won’t get everything you want. Things will go wrong (ask The Gem if I have ever complained, just ask her) but I always try to take the long view and work hard at the things closest to me, four walls and four people. Talk with, don’t talk at. Think! Listen, don’t just hear. There may be more facts, more points of view. You don’t know it all. Yes, you.
 
You. Don’t. Know. It. All. But every day we can all keep learning.
 
Enough, Jay…it’s holiday time. Let’s all hug a loved one. Hug as many friends and family as you can. Hug the guy with the microphone at the high school games (especially Bill at the hockey rink!) Build the bridge between those hills that they would die on. They’ll burn it down. Build it again. Build it again.
 
Build it again.
 
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year – with my love and respect to you ALL (except when Westwood plays Holliston, Ashley.)
 
My name is Jay Resha, and I approved this message!
 
Westwood Living? No…thank YOU for living in Westwood. See you next year, and I look forward to hearing from you any time at jayresha@comcast.net.