Cartoon Tuesday:

“The Five Stages of Grief”

- by Kevin Necessary

Kevin’s Commentary

Stages of Grief 1: Denial

Many of us are still processing our emotions after last week’s election. We will all need time to grieve, to vent, to cry, and to regroup before we move on to what’s next. My emotions have swung wildly since the election, ricocheting between denial and anger and despair. I will admit to just shutting down over several days last week.

As I talked with friends and family about the almost surreal turn of events, and as I looked inward, I noticed that much of what I feel echos the Kübler-Ross “Five Stages of Grief.” I had to acknowledge I am grieving. I grieve for our nation, which, while always imperfect, had at its core that impossible ideal of democracy and a more perfect union. I grieve for friends and strangers who may be persecuted due to who they wish to be, or who they wish to love, or where they or their families were born. I grieve for reason and facts and science. I grieve for civility. I grieve for those whose rights may be stripped away. I grieve for those who may lose health care. (I am among those terrified of losing my ACA coverage.)

My cartoons are reactions to the events of the day. But on rare occasions, I use my cartoons to help process my own emotions. I am using this and four subsequent cartoons to work through what I am feeling about the election and our future. This is a selfish endeavor. But I’m not sure I can move on and rejoin the fight until I allow myself to feel what I need to feel, and express those feelings my own way. And while I am drawing these cartoons for myself, perhaps they will also help a few others out there process their emotions, too, before we again strap on our gloves and step back into the ring.