I was one of those overprotective crazies that kept my kids in rear-facing car seats until they fully maxed out the weight/height limits of their mammoth car seats. For my son, even though he has always been at the top of the height and weight percentiles, it wasn’t until he was like two years old or so that we turned him around. For my more petite daughter, it wasn’t until she was nearly three years old!

She was actually so old that the first trip we went on with her facing forward, she was able to fully narrate the entire car ride with absolute delight and amazement! She had never seen us moving down the road in this way before; she could now see things as they were happening in front of the car! It was absolutely thrilling to watch her see everything for the first time!

When I turned across an intersection, she said with complete awe, “WOW, Mommy, you are doing SUCH a good job driving!”

Isn’t it funny that with a simple turn of the car seat from rear-facing to forward-facing, it could change her perspective, her understanding, her joy, her entire experience? Other than facing in a new direction, absolutely nothing about the car ride changed!

I’ve been thinking about this idea for how we all have experienced the past season. I find it so interesting that this nation is so polarized, and people on different sides can read, watch, or hear the exact same information and have such opposing perspectives. We can all be experiencing the same car ride but be looking at it from such different angles.

I felt this way a few months ago, when this administration put out websites called DEI watchlists, which were basically smear campaigns, spotlighting specific federal workers who been leaders in DEI efforts. While I knew it was an effort to make colleagues appear to be dangerous criminals, my personal experience with these individuals and DEI efforts immediately swapped out the title “DEI watchlist” for “DEI hall of fame.” I read through people’s profiles, pouring over all the amazing work they had done in their personal lives and professional careers to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. I was inspired and felt so lucky to know such amazing people. I knew that if I ever were hiring, these folks would be at the top of my list. My perspective caused these websites to have quite an unintentional outcome of inspiration and joy.

More broadly, I’ve also felt this way thinking about who this administration is focusing on, and how it is framing its narrative for each of these segments of the population.

If you quietly watch people who are interested primarily in power and control, you’ll notice that they sniff out the most powerful people in order to either (1) latch on to use them in a parasitic way or (2) push them down to use them in a doormat type of way—both options with the intent to gain more power and control from these powerful people. But because they are focused on power and control, rather than things like relationship or greater good, they are also rather fragile, fearful, and capricious. They don’t have much of a social safety net nor the safety of an internal stable foundation.

It actually brings me consolation and joy to think about which people this administration has really focused on pushing down, because it confirms for me a few communities that are truly powerful and beautiful in our great nation. To start, the list includes people fighting for DEI, women, the trans community, immigrants, federal workers/civil servants, and people with autism. These have been the first ones for this administration to attack, which to me, reveals their value and strength.

Someone asked me today what I think the next few months holds. There are two things I know for certain. One is that I don’t know—everything about this year has been so desperately unpredictable. Two, I believe this deep down, these precious groups will bend but not break, through the strength of many of us who will rally around one another in new and truly meaningful ways. Let’s be encouraged to fight the good fight!