I write this a few days following the election. The election that appears to have divided the nation in an intense fashion. One that created an environment where people are viewed as caricatures of their political views. One where many do not even know the foundational reasons as to why they voted for one candidate over the other, yet judge and are judged on this decision.

For a short while today, I was able to escape the fog of these recent events and regain a fresh view of humanity. I attended Philadelphia’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s in memory of my grandmother. It was last minute, but after my aunt offered to pick me up, I was on my way. I arrived as Citizen’s Bank Park to find floods of people in purple - many bundled up in hats and scarves for the cold weather. There were numerous families sporting team shirts. From infants to elderly, every age group was represented.

There was an unmistakable sense of hope, unity, and compassion in the air. So many people united by a cause that had affected each and every one in some capacity. A cause worth fighting for. A cause to lean on one another for. It was really quite beautiful. Masses of people, young and old, walked around with varying colors of flower pinwheels. The flowers were forget-me-nots (to tie in with the fight against Alzheimer’s, a progressive disease that destroys memory among other mental functions). Purple ones for all those who had lost a loved one to the disease, yellow for caregivers, orange for supporters, and blue for those currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Color by color we raised the forget-me-nots to the sky. It was striking, the unison of innumerable races, genders, ages, religions, and surely political views. In fact it was strange in a sense that none of those things seemed to greatly matter in the moment. Only the unified hope of a brighter future filled with more forget-me-nots.