Alleleuia, The Great Storm is Over

 There is a song by Bob Franke that has long comforted me, and the chorus goes like this: 

Alleluia, the great storm is over,
Lift up your wings and fly!
Alleluia, the great storm is over,
Lift up your wings and fly!

The news of the projection of Joe Biden’s election to the presidency occurred at about 11:30a on Saturday November 7^th. I was walking through the liquor store pushing my cart shopping for wines and scotch. Who knew how long this would last? I listened through my blue tooth headphones to the election reporting of CNN as I had done since Tuesday evening at 7:00p. Throughout the week I had done little else since election day but watch the news: hours and hours sitting before the screen watching as Trump’s early lead was whittled away by the mail-in ballots that the Democrats had urged people in the midst of this pandemic to cast. Finally, in that late Saturday morning sunshine CNN and other networks called the election and former vice president Biden became President- Elect Biden. And there pushing my partly filled cart through the store I suddenly began to weep. Hallelujah, I thought, the great storm was over. The heaviest weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and I felt that I could breathe again. I was wearing a mask and though my eyes were read my tears were hidden. I paid for my purchases and sat in the parking lot in my car and for several minutes I sat alone and wept. I think these were tears of relief and sorrow: relief that the nightmare was at an end, and sorrow for the experience of hate and fear through which I and the country had lived for more than five years. It has been a great storm and now it is over. 

            And there is a second song that sprang immediately to mind and I thought, “Ding, dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch the mean old witch.” May he melt away in history’s judgment. 

            On my walk this Sunday morning, the cloudless blue sky appeared to me flawless, the sun wrapped its arms warmly about me, and even the sad songs on the playlist didn’t seem so sad. Yes, the wicked witch is dead and the great storm is over.