It's not over, and who knows what the next several hours - or days - will bring.
But it is clear that millions of people have voted for a candidate who has insulted women, immigrants, Muslims, and people of color. A candidate who has threatened to deport my children's classmates and families. A person whose supporters are anti-Semites and terrifying to me on a deeply personal level.
And the question, the one in my head, and the one all over my FaceBook feed is this: what do we tell our kids?
Tomorrow, here's what I will say:
Yes, I am scared for the country. And yes, I am angry. (And while I am personally scared, that I will keep to myself for now).
I will tell them the history of successful civil rights movements. I will share photos and stories of protests; I will bring them if that feels safe to us.
I will tell them we aren't leaving America. (At least for now.) That most people don't have the privilege to even talk about leaving. We stay. We create change while we can and because we can.
We will lean into local. Into our own community. Into deepening relationships with our neighbors. Into meeting people who aren't like us.
We will bring our kids to volunteer. To serve food to the hungry. To weed a community garden. We will give them the agency to do small acts to make them understand that they can have a role - however small - in change.
Most of all? When they wake up, and ask about the voters on the other "side", I will not tell them - because I don't believe- that voters on the "other" side are ignorant, uneducated, horrific, some unknown "they". I will let tomorrow be a step towards rebuilding the "two America's" not towards deepening the divide.
I will speak up against hatred, racism, and misogyny. But I will not incite personal hatred of the millions of Americans who were - and are - themselves scared of a world that is rapidly changing. And I will not demean "middle America", rural America, those who aren't "like us". Because they are, also, us.
Over the next days and months and years, I will remember and reinforce, as our Rabbi and teacher Heidi Hoover wrote earlier this week, that we are all created in the image of God.
Most of all, I'll share the words of the mother of our nation: When they go low, we go high.
