We have been saved. By ourselves.

Maybe that’s all I need to say. But it feels like I need to say more.

We are changed by what has happened in our country. There are fine parts of us that have been worn away by the steady rasp of cruelty. We felt this happening. It was searing and painful at first, but soon we became numb, and then we were surprised to look at ourselves and see the fine parts gone.

There has been damage done, not just to us as a people, but to us as people. Each of us.

But there’s also been muscle built where before there was weakness. Millions of people, exhausted but made stronger by treading water in the bottomless, terrifying ocean of our country, found their way on to the life raft of the election.

Seventy-four million of us. We saved ourselves. We saved the…