Sometimes, I jump to hope as an immediate response before fully engaging lament.

Then, lament sneaks up, bops me on the head and says, “Pay attention.”

Lamenting is not losing hope; it is pausing and gathering, assessing, aligning with one’s regret, and breathing.

Jimmy Kimmel expressed lament last night, with a ray of hope, but a large dose of reality.

Hope is usually a call to action.

We must rebuild. We must resist. We must figure out a way to come together; we must love our neighbor, even the neighbor with whom we cannot see eye to eye.

That requires hope.

It requires us to see and believe that there is something worth standing and fighting for. It requires us to believe that people can come around or meet in the middle or at least hear voices of reason.

It requires seeing the best in our opponents.

It also requires realism and lament.

So, here I am today, no less committed, no less opinionated, but no less sad … knowing that the work is hard, harder than we thought it would be.

Hoping, loving, committed to truth and justice.