Dear Siblings Three,

I was reading a story
in which some siblings became estranged
after their parents died,
while others moved toward greater solidarity.

This is a variation on a diaspora story.
But, here growing physical distance
is seen more as a geographic effect
than a political cause
of growing estrangement on one side,
and solidarity on the other.

Emigration out toward others of like faith systems
and re-immigration of siblings back toward each other,
circling our tribal wagons,
for now it is our turn
for that Great Transition
into mere grandparent mortality,
to go out toward this night better informed together
than estranged alone.

I thought of how true this is for me,
with my three siblings;
an older brother Mike
an sister Connie
from whom I feel estranged,
and a younger sister Kerry
whose mind and heart,
spirit and nature,
have always been
and yet still become
as one.

If I used speed dial
on my smart phone,
Kerry would be first on my contacts list.
My husband would be a distant second.

By contrast,
if Mike or Connie ever called,
my screen would only show
Michigan or Texas
because I have never put them in my contacts list.

That is how I define estranged
as contrasted with
solidarity.

Why we are as we are
we have never discussed.
And I wonder if I will regret this
should any one of you fade back into MotherEarth
before I do.

I suppose this sibling divide
may have to do with competing faith systems
rather than exploring cooperative,
and mutually appreciative,
multiculturing faith systems.

But I have no idea whether Connie or Mike would agree
with this hypothesis of prime cause,
or might include this
in a larger bag of history and enculturation
I have not thought of,
or perhaps have not yet learned to see.

So,
when I was compiling a list of Republicans I know
well enough to ask who they voted for
in our most recent Presidential selection,
and how are we feeling now
about those choices,
two of the four people I could imagine asking,
and yet not without some fear and trepidation,
are my own estranged Mike and Connie.

This leaves me wondering
how we will grow healthier as Earth’s
#1 consumer of fossil-based dwindling energy
and #1 producer of global climate pathologies, per capita,
if we don’t even talk about this
as families estranged from each other’s faith systems
yet sharing one national,
and preferably civil,
citizenship.

Faith systems, if they are about good faith,
should produce our own lives of growing integrity
and faith in healthy futures
for our children and grandchildren.

So it is, I am asking
Mike and Connie, but also Kerry,

Who did you vote for President last year,
or who would you have voted for,
in case you didn’t bother?
And how are you thinking/feeling
about that preference now,
approaching one year later?

I’ll start,
and invite each of you to respond in kind,
rather than writing in response to my story,
or to each other’s.
We can get to compare and contrast later,
as a second stage in a national dialogue,
if we each survive this familial first.

I would have voted for Hillary
if I had found the new polling place
before it so rudely closed,
right after I finally wrestled Ivy into bed.

During both the Obama and Clinton administrations,
Hillary was the primary architect,
or at least one of just two or three,
of diverse attempts to actually pass what would ideally have become
universal health care legislation
through a typically constipated bicameral Congress.

It also seemed to me that she extends her economic
and political investments
in health care
and receiving
to environmental health care
and receiving
issues,
concerns,
and ecological opportunities
to explore WinWin bicameral solutions
for both Republican conservators
in defense of humane physical,
and mental,
and spiritual health;
and Democratic libertines of equal health and thrival opportunities
of and for all species.

I erroneously thought the Republican candidate
was unlikely to win
because he ran against all of the above,
so at least the large majority of women voters,
traditionally strong on family and community health care issues,
would find Donald to be anathema,
both ecologically
and sacredly.

So, how I am feeling now,
as a Blue Connecticut State resident,
is angry,
and terrified
that what was Presidential campaign promised
continues to be my nightmares of cosmological disaster and threat,
and therefore compelled to do everything I can
to facilitate all of us
learning as much from this economic and ecological and political mistake
as possible,
as quickly as possible,
seeking 2020 critical certainty
before 2020 reaches its ultimate November selection.

We are a two BlueState,
two RedState family,
although Michigan is more ambiguous,
I doubt Mike’s Michigan Republican experience
is peculiarly ambiguous.

If we can talk about this
in a mutually appreciative way,
with gratitude for this opportunity
which can only last through all four lifelines,
perhaps we can help set a more harmonic bicameral tone
for and with our other increasingly estranged States,
and families.