By David Himmel

• A reminder for those of us whose team* lost this week… Now is no longer the time to panic our even mourn. Now is the time to buckle up for what’s to come and to buckle down to do the work ahead.

• Life is a balance of comedy and tragedy. It’s best to tip the scales by finding the comedy within that tragedy.

• *About that team thing I mentioned above. It’s important to recognize and accept that elected officials are not on our team. They work for us. And more often than not, they don’t give one shit about us or what we need. If they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess. And I don’t mean a second Trump presidency. I mean an economy most of us struggle to thrive within, a healthcare system too many of us get screwed over in the worst ways by. Our team is us—the electorate. Ideally, it’d be all of us, every last one, but, of course, that’s a fool’s assumption. So, as we go forward, think about what our team—what we—can do better. I think it starts with demanding better behavior and better work from those we try to elect.

• Scolding only works on young children. If the Left wants to progress with its progressive ideas, it needs to stop scolding. Stop scolding the other team, and for the love of God, stop scolding those on your team. Disagree, converse, never scold. You’ll lose. Don’t believe me? See what happened on Tuesday.

• A 6-quart pot of chili makes fall bearable.

•  Life can crumple us up as easily as paper. And like paper, we can be uncrumpled. We just need the time to do it. Take the time. Smooth yourself out. Then give life a paper cut right under the fingernail to let it know you’re not to be fucked with.