While I have plenty to be thankful for this season of gratitude, I am still dealing with the malaise of Hurricane Helene here in WNC and the election results. My prayer for this Thanksgiving:

Holy Creator –

Thank you for the opportunity to pause and reflect on all we are grateful for. As we gather in this warm home, we remember others who do not have this blessing; this feast before us is prepared by loving hands and hearts, remembering others who don’t have this blessing, good health, and others who are suffering and in pain. We remember past Thanksgivings and those we shared, which are now memories.

Forgive us for taking so much and so many for granted. Open our eyes, minds, and hearts to the least of us, to those we view as enemies instead of neighbors. Help us to love ourselves just as we are so we can love others just as they are.

Thank you for community and for constantly reminding us that we can not live this life alone. We need one another. Make us community builders of more extended tables instead of taller walls.

Help us overcome our fear, mental scarcity, and hopelessness. Help us walk-the talk of compassion, justice, and humility.

And the grateful assembled say, AMEN!

When I became Venture Out Director at Camp Joy in 2000, a challenge was to build our adjunct pool to work with corporate clients such as Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Leadership Cincinnati, and many others. Adjuncts would come to Camp Joy on Saturday mornings to meet and learn how to facilitate and debrief portable and low-ground initiatives and physically challenging high-rope courses.

We began the Saturday morning adjunct gathering, checking in with each other and answering, “Why are you here, and what would you like to get out of today’s meeting?” One Black woman, new to us, answered, “I came out here to meet some good white people!” This woman had experienced the fallout from the April 2001 riots in Cincinnati sparked by the killing of an unarmed Black man, Timothy Thomas, by Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach.

April 7, 2001, Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach fatally shot Thomas while attempting to arrest him for past traffic violations, all non-violent. Thomas was the 15th Black person killed by Cincinnati Police in the previous six years. Cincinnati Police had killed no white person in that same period. Note that Cincinnati had a 40% Black population at the time. Four days of riots lead to millions of dollars in damage. These were some of the worst riots in this country at that time.

This woman has become one of my closest, dearest friends. I refer to her as my soul sister. We Zoom several times a month, and once a year, we co-facilitate a leadership retreat for a significant Cincinnati client with another close friend. We have done diversity, equity, and inclusion work together.

This woman is a mentor and the person most responsible for helping me to learn and understand my white male heterosexual Christian privilege. She has helped me become a better version of myself.

We Zoomed this past Friday morning. She cried. We cried. She is scared of who we are as a nation. She is suffering and is in pain.

This woman’s comment back at Camp Joy in 2003 haunted me then and now.

After this election, I wondered if my definition of decent Americans is skewed, irrelevant, or wishful thinking. Am I naive? I wish I lacked common sense. I wish I didn’t have core values of compassion, justice, and humility. I wish I didn’t hold myself accountable to them and seek people with similar values. I wish I could ignore white supremacy and misogamy. I wish I didn’t care for people experiencing poverty, immigrants, or anyone who doesn’t look like me. I wish I could support the cult leader we just elected. What’s changed since the founding of this country? White Christian heterosexual males rule. Everyone else drools.

I struggle with not supporting the president-elect because I am an American citizen, and he is my president, but because my fellow citizens voted him in, and I can’t turn my back on my country. I am conflicted by my dislike of the president-elect and my desire for American democracy to succeed.

I used to believe I should not let politics get in the way of relationships. Before 2016, both political parties sought the common good. We seemed to be working to understand diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and were willing to learn about untaught history. We sought to become enlightened. SCOTUS ruled for same-sex marriage in 2015.

That tide is going out.

As I approach elderhood, I fear for America and my grandchildren. I especially fear for my daughter, her wife, and their children. More than ever, for my well-being, I may no longer be able to have a relationship with those who do not share my values, pain and suffering. You who support the president-elect, please recognize the pain I feel for my friends and family from the fear and potential harm coming their way. If you ignore this pain, it will be hard for us to be in a relationship.

*Picture is the “Holy Chaos,” a fresco in the front of the sanctuary at Haywood Street Congregation, Asheville, NC.

After my last blog, Four Reasons NOT to Come to Asheville, NC, Right Now, I received a lot of feedback in agreement with me and also feedback disagreeing with me.

Whenever I write a blog, I do research. Here are a few resources from my research:

From Florida State University – Tropical Storms and Hurricanes: What to do after

From the State of Hawaii, Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism after the Maui wildfire – The closure of businesses in West Maui and the decrease in visitor arrivals – not only to Maui, but also to other islands across the state – will negatively affect the state’s economic recovery. The reconstruction of Lahaina will take years to complete.

Hawaii has lost population for several years in a row. It is reasonable to expect more people to move out of state due to business employment consolidation and relocation.

From Bay City Texas – Take care of your emotional health. During and after a hurricane, it is natural to experience different and strong emotions. Coping with these feelings and getting help when you need it will help you, your family, and your community recover from a disaster.

From International SOS – The immediate impact of an earthquake or hurricane to local infrastructure and communities is immense, but to avoid significant business disruption, organizations will commonly aim to resume operations as soon as possible after impact. However, resuming operations after such a disruption could actually cause more harm. It is imperative for organizations to understand the impact and develop a precise plan of how to best resume operations based on the health and safety in the affected area.

From FEMA – Before disaster strikes your business, nothing is more important than having a plan in place to protect your employees and safeguard your assets to minimize the disruption to the business.

About 25 percent of businesses do not reopen after disasters. Having an emergency disaster plan and a continuity of operations plan in place can reduce that risk and help the business recover faster. Below are tips to help businesses prepare for disasters large and small. 

From my reading and research, I concluded that the community must be the priority over business. Business is made of people and requires people to purchase goods and services. If the people aren’t good, safe, physically and mentally healthy, the business won’t be either.

I talked with business owners and artists who lost everything. They are focused on restoring the community and cannot take time to open a business or create new art. I, too, lost significant business with a client at a three-day event here in Asheville in October. That program is rescheduled for February 2025 in a different state.

I volunteer at Habitat Restore in the River Arts District, which was destroyed. Habitat relies on Restore to help with funding for the Habitat homes under construction. They are anxious to reopen Restore and recognize the priorities of people’s well-being over business.

I talked with first responders. As one first responder shared, “We are burned out! People need to stay away!”

These are my opinions. I appreciate hearing yours as we move forward to make Asheville Strong.