The Wrong House

Vicki and I were invited to a luncheon given at the home of an EA alumnus. I checked the directions on my phone, but when we arrived, I found it difficult to fully identify the home for the luncheon. The homes were different in this cluster from an architectural perspective; but  looked the same and did not stand out. When we entered, we were greeted by the host and made our way into the middle of the gathering with a wonderful group of extroverts who engaged us readily in conversation.

EA is a large enough school that given my role, I know the families in our alumni community. I was looking for our host. He was nowhere in sight. I also didn’t recognize the people who were gathered at the luncheon, but they were so engaging that I couldn’t figure out what was occurring. I finally asked, “Is this the home of _____?” The host replied, “No. They are the next house.

They are our neighbors!” If I hadn’t asked that question, we would have spent the afternoon there.” I apologized to the host! He said, “No problem! Happy to meet you.” I was grateful when we went next door and I saw the familiar face of the alumnus who had invited us.” I can’t say enough of how relieved we felt to find the right house with people I knew and who I am proud to know. Since they all went to EA, there were shared values present in the conversation.

The moral of the story is that sometimes you can find the right home and embrace it when you spend some time in a home where you don’t recognize for you are on unfamiliar ground. It is called cognitive dissonance where two things don’t go together when you find yourself in the wrong house thinking it is the right one. In fact, it felt as a strong release to know that I felt I was finally at the home where I should be when we went next door.

What is happening in America today is that we are finding ourselves in the wrong house where we may know the political players, but we are feeling the unease or disease of business as usual in contemporary political life. We know we aren’t in the right place.

A friend of mine who also is a religious reader of my blogs said something to me yesterday that caused me to think of my experience of finding the right house after spending some time in the wrong place.

He indicated to me that because of Trump’s demolishing our familiar standards of laws, the Constitution, and doing what is right for the nation and as he lines his pockets with unethical actions that have never been seen before. It has forced us to look at our historic documents such as the Constitution to see what we valued in the past, in the right house!

We have been wandering around in the wrong house with Trump as host telling us how wonderful life would be to get him elected to now realize that we need to get to the right house of what history tells us including DEI and the wonderful leadership in the past that has brought to us to be seen as a model of what a Democracy should be.

Once we become aware of all the history that we share with the host of the right house including documents such as the Constitution, we will feel such a relief that we are back in the right place. People can’t wait to get Trump and his administration out of office. So many people are saying this is not what is familiar to us and not what we expected.

When Vicki and I recognized the host and those gathered, it felt great. I could write a book about the escapades of the host and his classmates. We shared the same legacy of the emphasis on character of our school and the memories of our shared values of life together.

I want to admit the metaphor breaks down regarding the people of the wrong house for they were as friendly and helpful as they could be. However, the electorate felt the same way about Trump who promised to make America great again with wins like nothing that we have ever seen before. He gaslighted us!

If the host in the wrong house started to talk about white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and his ambitions to be a dictator, Vicki and I would have been out of there in a heartbeat.

What has made Heather Cox Richardson so popular on Facebook is that her daily reflections are that she takes events of the day and shows how they are antithetical to the basic tenets of Democracy and the Constitution. She is brilliant and she makes the real history come alive. I sometimes find myself thinking, like my friend, that if she reminds us of what it means to be an American, we can get in the right house of being proud of our host and bring back memories that have shaped and formed our lives for the good.

Not enough of us are feeling that we are on unfamiliar ground because everything Trump does such as anti-DEI needs to be challenged for us to get to the right house again.

The No Kings Protest was a start! All need to take a stand against Trump.