The political “temperature” has been running high. 

After former President Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally in July, President Biden urged us all to work to bring it down. That call seems to have fallen on deaf ears. 

Perhaps the only way we can hope to cool off is by together focusing on an improved future.

As the country braces itself for a presidential election that we understand to be very, very close and suspect may be contested as bitterly as it was fought even after the polls have closed, people have been swapping tips about how to combat the related stress and anxiety. 

Psychologists and therapists are joining analysts on TV news. Without offering remarks on what that says about the state of the nation, we’ll say this: Effectively coping with politics-related stress means looking inward, shifting our energy and our attention beyond the outcome of the election.

If the 2024 campaigning is anything to go by, Tuesday is likely to bring with it a choppy sea of claims, counterclaims, challenges and allegations. We are likely to have to wait some time for a result. Wherever we stand, desperation shouldn’t become a defining force during that period. 

What if our various emotions were channeled into sensible ideas for the future? How can our communities work better together? How can we regroup, politically and civically? We owe it to ourselves to ask these questions – and keep asking them until we have good answers.