The Sanity We’ve Lost (And How to Find It Again)

One man doesn't hold the keys to our future; we do.

It’s nearly Christmas, and I’m thinking about the year ahead rather than the one behind us.

Not because 2025 wasn’t significant, it certainly was. The second Trump term began. Political violence claimed lives, including Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette survived an assassination attempt the same night as the Hortmans’ murders. Despite it all, the rhetoric seems to have gotten nastier. The divides somehow felt deeper.

What I’ve been thinking about as I watch the pundits close out their year-end shows: We’ve all convinced ourselves that one man — whether we love him or hate him — holds the keys to our future. I spent eight years watching Barack Obama up close. I saw what a President can and cannot do. And I’ve spent the years since watching Americans invest far too much hope and far too much blame in the one person sitting in the Oval Office.

The truth? We’ve got to look a bit deeper. All of us.

When we’re honest with ourselves we can see that sometimes we are the problem. We are the reason we get stuck. Even if we don’t know it. When we think about our own rhetoric, our own certitude, our own unwillingness to listen. We’re all plowing forward, and exhausting ourselves. By taking everything so seriously, by treating every political moment like an existential crisis, by turning against each other over disagreements that, in the grand scheme, matter far less than we pretend. We think we are being vigilant, holding our ground, but sometimes we are just creating walls.

Kids Know Something We’ve Forgotten

A personal story: My son borrowed my phone yesterday to play music while I drove him and his friend around. He went on my Instagram and started liking and resharing random posts from my account. Some of them were political. He was trolling.

I wasn’t thrilled. Then I watched him laughing at it all, the politics, the posts, the seriousness of it all. And I realized: Maybe that’s the sanity we’ve lost. Kids have always been the ones I look to for guidance. It’s not always that serious. And it shouldn’t be, because when it is, we block out possibilities we barely know exist.

The Blessing of Stepping Back

Which brings me to some personal news.

For years, my husband and I decided we had one child and we were content. We didn’t want the stress of trying for another. We love the son we have. When I took a step back from the chaos, though, when I left the CEO role and surrounded myself with less stress something truly unexpected happened. When I stopped treating every moment like a crisis, I found a blessing I didn’t know was still possible.

In very early May 2026 (or thereabouts), we’ll welcome another son.

My first arrived during the Obama administration. This one gets a Trump account. (More on that another time.)

There is nothing — and I mean nothing — more important than this. Not the hot takes. Not the outrage cycles. Not the certainty that we’re right and they’re wrong. What matters is what we build. Who we love. The futures we create. The community we build, however it is we build it.

What We’re Building

As Christmas arrives, I’m remembering how lucky we are.

Lucky to live in a country where we have the freedom to build families, to raise children, to hope for better. To make the better days happen. Lucky that the solutions to our problems don’t rest with one man in Washington, but with all of us — if we choose to step up.

I’m looking forward to 2026. Predictions to come. But not next week. Next week, I’ll be taking time off to enjoy my family. I hope you do the same.

Merry Christmas. See you in the new year.