Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

Being around people who have been in therapy over the past couple of years, the new helpful word to describe things that sets one off is the word triggers. Every day it feels like my list of triggers is getting longer.

Are any of these your triggers too:

• Anytime the current man in the Oval Office starts talking.
• Anytime Mitch McConnell starts talking.
• Anytime the mainstream press gives all of kinds of free presidential race PR to the current man in the Oval Office.
• Anytime headline writers mislead us with their words.
• Anytime I hear a projection by a trumpist of how things are and knowing what they are blaming on someone else is in fact what they themselves are currently doing.
• Anytime someone speaks about taking rights away from someone else like same-sex marriage or having a final say on ones’ body.
• Anytime a politician says the country is doing great economically because the stock market is rising.
• Anytime I hear a trumpist say they want to protect pre-existing conditions while at the same time they are supporting the demise of the ACA which in fact protects pre-existing conditions.
• Anytime I see the hypocrisy about choosing a Supreme Court Justice this close to an election.
• Anytime I read or hear about trumpists and state level Republicans doing everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of non-whites and the working poor.
• Anytime I see someone’s nose hanging out over a mask, or a mask hanging down under a chin so they can technically say they are wearing a mask.
• Anytime we hear of another black man or woman being shot and killed.
• Anytime I see an armed white guy marching outside, or inside, a government building and not being arrested or having their machine gun confiscated by the police.
• Anytime I see a policeman, a politician, or a enlisted person flashing the white power sign.
• Anytime I want to go out to eat, or to a movie, or go to New York to see a play, or attend a band contest, or hang with friends, and I can’t because to do so puts my, and their, health at risk.
• Anytime I hear the words “undecided voter.”
• Anytime I hear anyone saying they are voting for the incumbent because of the so many great things he has accomplished.
• Anytime I hear someone say they aren’t going to vote because it doesn’t matter anyway (this is a very large trigger).

The sad thing is, this is a very abbreviated list. I’m triggered about being triggered so much. I want it to stop and so much of it is dependent in some ways by the results of the upcoming election.

Please make sure you plan your vote, and then vote. All of our mental health’s depend on it before we are permanently scarred by the incumbent and his sycophants.