I look forward every day to the White House news briefings. Without fail, they lift my spirits and bring hope. Especially after reading the news that provides facts all day long about the dangers of Covid-19. At the end of the day, it is the White House briefing that brings wisdom and even humor, helping me to stay optimistic. I am comforted by the team’s truthful information they provide.
Besides eight sisters, I was raised with nine brothers and an old-fashioned outspoken Italian father. The males were all sincere and often could not hold back their contradictions to themselves, and that is what I am used to. But I always felt that their love and concern guided me on the right path and never failed me. And how I had often needed it! That leaves me to understand with respect, the male authority, and temperament differently.
The coronavirus pandemic has shown a spotlight on America’s politics for me than ever before. I have learned more about their hard work and dedication through the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force. It is the briefing team’s sincerity and simplicity along with their prominent qualifications that I admire so dearly. I see and hear the powerful heart of America that is anxious because they are presented with far more serious and critical issues than they or any of us have ever known. It brings the childhood experience of emotions that remind me of the male figures in my life. The White House team continues to comfort and console us. I feel that I can trust them.
Now you might think what does my experience have to do with the White House briefings and how it brings me hope and optimism during this terrible crisis. It is the same answer. The task force is bringing us all together. We need now to be patient, and most of all to trust. We need to respect authority, we do not have to know everything. In some mysterious way, we are all shown exactly what we need to hear. We must look up and thank the people around us who calmed our anxious fears and made it all possible.
In the timely words of Pope Francis, and how anxiety can be an important time of growth:
“Christ’s peace is the fruit of His death and resurrection…We have to explain the meaning of the word “peace” which can be misinterpreted, or at times trivialized…There is also another more widespread meaning in which the word “peace” is understood as a sort of interior serenity; I am calm, I am at peace. This is a modern, psychological, and more subjective idea. We generally think that peace is stillness, harmony, inner balance. This accepted meaning of the word “peace” is incomplete and cannot be made absolute because anxiety can be an important time of growth. The Lord Himself often sows anxiety in us so that we may go towards him, to find Him. In this sense, it is an important moment of growth. Meanwhile, it can happen that inner tranquility corresponds to a trained conscience and not to true spiritual redemption. The Lord often has to be “a sign of contradiction (cf. Lk 2:34-35), shaking our false securities in order to bring us to salvation. And in that moment, it seems we have no peace but it is the Lord who puts us on this path so that we may attain the peace that He Himself will give to us.”
It took me many years to see the morality behind the opposing male figures in my life. Especially with my outspoken father, who showed hints of humor through our life-storms, and how the laughter calmed us. I have learned that men are not the same as women in telling stories. Some are louder or more outspoken, and because of their life experiences, passionately say what is on their minds in fewer words. But I have learned they can be the most loving, powerful, and dedicated leaders that often just need the softness, sensitivity, and understanding of a woman’s heart to keep them strong. And we need them, too. The world needs them. The silence and the noise are the balance that brings us all together in love.
The White House briefings team, to me, are the trustworthy heroes that bring me hope and keep me optimistic for a better tomorrow. Thanks to all of them! Thank you, President Trump!