Vang: My Election Day mood? Think a wet cat with an unusually short fuse

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I live right across the mighty Mississippi River in the beautiful state of Wisconsin. My state is pivotal to the path to victory for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Because of this, I have been contacted non-stop by both parties seeking my vote. This relentless political tension leading to the election has left me — and many others — feeling overwhelmed and anxious.

My current mood on Election Day bears a striking resemblance to a wet cat with an unusually short fuse. Can you blame me? My phone pings 12 times an hour with text reminders from each party urging me to vote, as if I’d somehow forgotten this civic duty in the time it took me to pour a cup of coffee. There’re also the non-stop political ads from both Trump and Harris on social media, television and radio describing a future that resembles Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement.”

To manage the stress, I’ve tried a variety of unexpected activities: listening to the 1982 Gandhi movie soundtrack on repeat, running through a haunted corn maze with chainsaw-wielding actors, scribbling down poetry, joining a wellness workshop to practice mindful breathing, and rocking out at a Nathaniel Rateliff concert.

My three children have watched their mother spiral into a festival of “glitching” (the hip new term for unraveling, as they tell me) as I ricochet between being a sloth eating chips on my sofa to manically cleaning the house, which usually ends with me clutching the broom handle like a security blanket.

The family conversations aren’t helping either. Both my husband and I come from large families with diverse political views. We try, in our own Midwestern polite way, to ignore that we’re voting for different candidates than our relatives, but there is tension in the air.

My stress comes from a gnawing sense that no one has control over their own destiny, that we’re all passengers on a runaway train headed toward an ominously dark future no matter who wins the election. However, when I went to my polling place this rainy morning and casted my vote for Kamala Harris, I felt my heart flutter with hope. As the Gandhi movie soundtrack played in my head, I felt a calm come over me because perhaps nonviolence, truth and inclusivity might win after all.