So my plan was to publish my earlier post yesterday, but I didn’t get it done due to some other commitments. But I had been planning this week’s Motivational Music Monday since Saturday, so I didn’t want to miss it.

This week’s edition was inspired by a friend of mine who was going through a really stressful life situation out of state while all her family and friends were back here in North Carolina. But she said that even through her family and friends weren’t with her, she didn’t feel alone. This song immediately popped into my head when she said that.

Then, I was catching up on some of my political columnist that I like after a week of teaching and not having to read them during the work week. I noticed that several of them were writing basically no that same topic: you are not alone.

The first was Marianne Williamson. She had a column with a great eyecatching title: ““STALIN TO THE LEFT OF ME, HITLER TO THE RIGHT, HERE I AM…Stuck in the middle with you.

Her point was that research (supposedly…she didn’t give any source) that while media-driven political discussion tends to focus on the extremism on both sides, only about 6% of the American people agree with those position (on their side, at least). The vast majority of American–80% she says–don’t know about or agree with or identify with either fringe…Democratic Socialism or Christian Nationalism or whatever the Project 2025 people consider themselves to be. Most of us have much more moderate and overlapping viewpoints than we think, whether we lean left/blue or right/red. She argues that we have to get over the labels and the judgements and such and create what she calls “an intelligent middle” who can come together to forge common sense and widely acceptable solutions to the challenges this country faces. There are more of us than there are of the extremists…but they are trying to make us feel isolated and alone and that only we feel the frustrations or want the policies that make sense to us.

The second was Pete Buttigieg, who posted a wonderful video under the title “Don’t Let Them Fool You: You Are Not Alone.”https://petebuttigieg.substack.com/p/dont-let-them-fool-you-you-are-not

He said much the same thing–that the vast majority of us have more in common than we have differences. He emphasized the need to come together as people, not as parties or coalitions or activist groups, etc. He finds that when we just come together as people and talk, we find a lot more areas of agreement over our wishes, hopes, and dreams, for ourselves and for our country.

Then my current super hero, Heather Cox Richardson, published a post this week title “You Are Not Alone.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/you-are-not-alone?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=20533&post_id=212429297&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6hhcj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

To some extent, she was riffing off Buttigieg’s video. But she ran through a series of issues that polls show the vast majority of American agree about. She concluded with this passage, which I think is just lovely

When you believe these things, you’re not just not alone. You’re part of a powerful majority, really a supermajority of the American people. So whether you’re a Democrat, an Independent, or someone who has generally voted Republican in the past, most voters want the same things right now, to be led and represented by normal people who are good at getting things done. People want leaders who respect those who disagree or vote differently instead of calling them the enemy. People who know that God does not belong to a political party in the United States of America. Most voters want to elect leaders who are not simply trying to rebuild the past, but are trying to create something new and better.

So you see what I mean? I felt like I couldn’t wait until next week to post this, even though it makes it a two-post day.

I do believe we are not alone. But we all might have moments when we forget that. So maybe this song, from one of my all-time favorite musicals, can remind you of that truth when you are feeling isolated.