Whiplash, weirdos and winning.
Yes, this is exciting, yes it’s hopeful and yes it’s joyful, but it’s also been hard. And I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say so.
Hi. I’m so sorry I’ve been radio silent. I needed a minute without even knowing it but my mind decided for me and then it kind of forced the issue.
So, here goes…
Listen, I’ve seen some wild shit in my 50 years on this rock of ours.
Once, while waiting on line for my Marlboros (yeah I was a smoker back “in the day”) at a Christy’s in Boston after a late waitressing shift, I saw the blood of a man who’d been stabbed to death directly behind me swirl around my feet before I was picked up and carried out the door by the security guard.
I watched the teenage brother of a high school friend sink one of those super pricey little speed boats you could rent at the fancy Disney resorts once upon a time because he thought he was a tough guy and that doing high-speed circles around my little dingy would make him legend in the eyes of the handful of on-shore off-duty “cast member” onlookers waving “Stop! Don’t do that! Stop!!!”
He didn’t stop. Well, not until his boat did anyway, but I digress.
And as an aside — that little joy-ride did leave his dad around $14,000 poorer.
I once rushed my then baby girl to the hospital because her pediatrician thought she might have sudden onset diabetes (she didn’t but there is a lollipop cautionary tale here for another day), I once accidentally (and quite fortunately) gave the Heimlich to a child I was babysitting after he told me to “watch” and promptly swallowed the handful of marbles he was holding, and I even saw a ghost in the bathroom mirror at my ex husband’s childhood home standing behind me as I was doing my eyeliner, and no, it wasn’t JD Vance, his name was Mr. Priest and he was a rather gaunt, quiet type of fellow but not altogether unfriendly.
You’d think I’d have been prepared to process this a helluva lot better (and faster) than I have.
But I’ve never seen anything even close to this. None of us has.
Here’s the truth friends — this shit fucked me up pretty good. In ways I didn’t even see or understand or at least process as they were well underway.
I should have known. This is my stupid stress response (ok, ok — I won’t judge my own feelings as I hear my amazing therapist in my mind reminding me), but man— if you’d asked me three months ago if I was gonna shut off or shut anything down as it pertained to this election or my creative outlets, I would have laughed and asked you what you’d been smoking.
No way was that gonna happen to me.
Ha. Not me. I was good.
(I wasn’t).
I don’t have the precise language to explain it in the right psychological terms, so I’m just gonna Jo my way though this and hope you can see me and what I’m literally working through as I write these words.
I never quite got over Joe.
I’m not ever going to be over Joe.
And by that I mean, and let’s be real fucking honest here folks, I mean what was done to Joe.
Because it wasn’t cool. It was cutthroat and cowardly and it was terrifyingly close to the very shit we constantly crusade against.
And we ain’t the ends justify the means party, at least that’s not in the pamphlets, but if I’m sharing my own personal truth, that’s sure as fuck what this was all feeling like.
And there was this other naggingly persistent disquieting thought out there for me — which was were we gonna be the throw away the votes party?
Really — after January 6th? No fucking way, right?
It’s been hard. It’s been messy. It’s been tricky. It’s been sad and it’s been joyful and hopeful and there’s been guilt and happiness over all of it. There are a million trillion feelings and that’s ok. It’s ok to feel all of it. I know I’m not alone in feeling like I’m on some sort of not fun sex swing here. I know it in my bones. Ok, maybe just a regular swing but whatever you prudes. And I also know that we have to wipe our snotty noses, put our dukes up and fight.
Because Joe asked us to.
And I’ll do 500,000% more to protect his legacy now than I would have before.
And Kamala is also my kickass VP so, I’m ready.
I’m a super sappy, sentimental human being and yes, I’m sure that belies what people may think of me, but it’s just the truth.
Joe will always be “my guy.”
He’s my “hot chocolate on a snow storm night”, but he’s also, quite possibly the single most consequential President in our nation’s history.
And this new ticket is joyful and it is hopeful and it is fun and it is America. And while I continue to brush those Joe tears away, I really am so excited to do whatever I can to win this thing.
For Joe.
For Kamala.
For America.
And for my kids.
So, let’s fucking go!!!
And Tim Walz is kind of fucking perfect, so that is fun.
I love you guys.
I thank you for sticking by me while I shut down unintentionally for some period of time.
And winning this damn thing is well within our grasp. Standing together will be the key.
I’m grateful to stand with each and every one of you.
Onward.
Together.
Love love love,
- Jo (that’s me)
Now how about a song (one of my faves)…
Thank you. You have said what I have been thinking all along.
As far as I’m concerned you can take whatever time you need, whenever you need it because, Jo, you are brilliant and I love your voice, your heart and your mind.
There will be plenty of work to do - with Joe - as long as we’re confronted by the dipshit GOP and their “leaders”, JD and Diaper Pants. Let’s kick their asses back to their respective caves.
Rest up, we’ll be busy.