A Letter to My Daughter on the Day that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Were Projected to Be the Winning Ticket for President and Vice-President of the United States

Dear Elizabeth:

It is November 7, 2020, in Arkansas, the sky is blue, and the temperature is 72 degrees. Unseasonable. And come January 20, 2021, Donald Trump will no longer be our President. A new season entirely.

For four years now, I have been trying to remove this man from my life. Take him off my radar. In the course of doing this, I made new friends, attended rallies for local political candidates, gave money to them, went deeper into my meditation practice, and said “thank you” to more people in four years than I’d ever said in my life. All of this felt very good, but Trump stayed where he was, and his general inanity began to seep into areas of my life that had never been breeched by the likes of his destructive energy.

I also took a long look at my status as an American citizen.

I made some changes in that status. I drew a circle on a sheet of paper and made a list beside that circle of the things that I wanted to happen in this country. Then I moved inside the circle those things that I could realistically accomplish or, even more realistically, help to accomplish. I won’t go into the details of this exercise, but I will tell you that the list outside of the circle remained long, though attractive, while the items I moved inside the circle were few in number and slightly depressing in their small scale.

But here’s what I want to tell you on this day of blue skies and unseasonably moderate temperatures: real citizenship begins in a very small way, and for most of us, it never goes much beyond that because it’s the small ways, the unseen tidal currents, that keep this country flowing.

Here are five things you need to do:

1. Identify your passion. This is not always easy to do, and your educational curriculum will push you to find this passion before you are ready to do it. So be alert and listen to no one that bores you. You must locate these passions on your own and reel them in without assistance. And remember: they are elusive, though always present; grumpy, even vengeful, when ignored; and life-sustaining when they receive the proper attention. Find your passion, then, and return to it as often as you can.
2. Read the news regularly (a sour stomach means you’ve read enough), locate the big topics, and spend a little time crafting a few sentences that can clearly relay, to anyone who is interested or who might ask, what you think about those topics. And then return to your passion.
3. If you end up aligning yourself with a political party—and my generation did that kind of thing—read its national platform. It won’t take long; the people who put these things together have mastered the practice of thinking and writing like children even though they are legally adults. And then return to your passion.
4. Always remember that you are pursuing your passion because a lot of people have chosen not to pursue theirs and have given their lives instead to public service. If you agree with their policies, don’t question their motivations; just support them. And then return to your passion.
5. You have a finite amount of energy—physical, spiritual, psychological—available to you on any given day. Use it wisely. I have found that I sleep better when I use that energy to praise those who work to support the community rather than to attack those who don’t. So praise whenever possible; criticize whenever necessary. And then return to your passion.

The strongest citizens are those who pursue those passions while helping to support the communities that have allowed them to do it. But, remember, this kind of society always hangs in a delicate balance. A corrosive force like the one Trump brought to Washington can wreck it.

With Biden and Harris heading for the White House, though, I believe that this balance will once again include the common goals that define a strong citizenry in the 21st century: diversity, health insurance, enfranchisement, education, financial security, and a clean environment. That Kamala Harris, a fiercely intelligent woman and a gifted public servant, is now our vice-president signals to me that women are taking their rightful place in strengthening that citizenry, and I hope that you will always recognize the work these women undertook to clear the path for you.

Final note: you might start with your mother in your program of thanks-giving, who has worked tirelessly for a very long time on her two passions: you and Southern politics. I’m sure the community is stronger for her work on both of these passions.

I love you, Elizabeth. Long may you run.