Trying to get back in the saddle (when you hate the horse)

Hi darling! 

First off – a huge word of thanks.

THANKS.

Wait….that’s not big enough.

THANKS.

Ah, that’s better.
So many of you reached out to me after the last newsletter, I spent hours writing everyone back – I hope I didn’t miss anyone!

I won’t say that it’s been an easy week – not at all.
At first, I thought I would give Trump a chance, open my heart with love and an untarnished mind.
(Oh, do you know what ‘untarnished’ means? You should. It’s too easy for me to tell you- use Dictionary.com for that! And you should have that app on your phone already, bij de weg..)

But then I started getting the phone calls. And the mails. And the texts….

3 different families who consist of same-sex couples and their children have asked me how to apply for refugee status in the Netherlands. Members of Trump’s transition team have said that homosexuality is a sin and that people who apply for a marriage licence should be jailed. They are afraid their marriages will be annulled and their children taken away from them.

My friend has AIDS and now, under Obamacare, pays 300 dollars a month for his meds, which keep him alive. If Obamacare is repealed, which is part of our new Prez’s master plan, he will then have to pay 1400 dollars a moth. He will have to move in with his parents if he wants to stay alive. He is 53.

Another friend works at Planned Parenthood. I volunteered  at the Bronx office myself for many years when I was in college. She is afraid that her clinic will close as Trump has clearly said he plans to overturn Roe vs Wade, which guarantees a woman’s right to choose. Her clinic is also the only clinic in the area that does breast cancer screenings. That’s gone too if the clinic is forced to close.

Another friend of mine took his kids to the playground one Saturday morning and was greeted with spray-painted swastikas and “WHITE POWER/TRUMP POWER’ written all over the brick wall.

Another friend was stuck in traffic and someone in the car across from them shouted ‘YOU DIRTY ARAB TERRORIST!  TRUMP WANTS YOU TO LEAVE, AND SO DOES AMERICA!’

There have been nearly 500 reported hate crimes since the election, and I’m sure there have been thousands that have not been reported.

I’m trying hard to stay positive. I have spent a huge part of my career giving people the confidence they need to go on – to realise that they CAN do it – whether it’s giving that presentation, negating that complex contract, or networking at their next event. I’ve been trying hard to coach myself – I WILL get through this. We all will.

I’m just going to have to jump back in the saddle. I hate the horse, though. I really do.

Now I’m putting the blinders back on and diving deep into doing the work I love to do, for people I love. That gives me joy, such great joy, as I try so hard to hold tighter onto the reins of that goddamn horse.

Giddy up!
XX Buffi