It has taken me a while, and I have had to dig deep, but I have come up with something positive to say about the Trump victory: I now have more time.

I am retired and I used to spend an hour or two or more every day reading the national political coverage in the Press Herald, the New York Times, CNN, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, etc. No more. Reading primarily the “mainstream press,” I believed that Kamala Harris was going to win. The “women’s vote” was going to save us. Hispanic and other people of color were going to vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic ticket. This didn’t happen.

I have not spent any time reading  the post-mortem coverage on why Harris lost. I only glance at the headlines now. I don’t read the articles. This saves a lot of time. I haven’t read any of the press about the unqualified people Trump plans to nominate for leadership roles in his administration.

The headlines inform me that he is going to appoint inexperienced MAGA minions, many of whom have been accused and/or convicted of various nefarious deeds. The only glimmer of hope I have is that these clowns will be so incompetent and ineffective that they won’t be able to get anything done. Last time around they couldn’t even get a wall built. How hard is it to build a wall? Remember infrastructure week?  They could not pull that off either.

So what I am doing with all the time I am saving? I’m going micro.

Instead of fretting about the macro disaster heading our way, I’m trying to focus on the micro things that I have some control over. Like my fitness. I’m reasonably fit for a 70-year-old, but there is always room for improvement. Getting more fit, losing a few pounds, helps me feel better.

Rather than agonizing about the mass deportations that Trump is threatening, I’m trying to concentrate on what more I can do to help our local new immigrant population. I’m grateful that I live in a community that has been welcoming and supportive of the people here seeking asylum and, eventually, citizenship. We would have a hard time running our grocery stores, taxi cabs, nursing homes and lobster processing plants without them.

Those who have been here for a while own growing businesses, run nonprofit organizations and are in other leadership roles in our community. As the oldest state in the nation with a low birth rate, we need them if we want to grow our economy, and they enrich my experience of living in Maine.

I’m reading more fiction and listening to more music. I am taking a yoga class. Believe me when I say this is a stretch for me (pun intended). These things are helping me. I walk around Back Cove two or three times a week and as I look across the water at the Portland skyline, I appreciate where I live and am grateful for the civic leaders who built the Back Cove trail 30 years ago. I walk through Baxter Woods and I thank Percival Baxter. I remind myself that life is pretty good here and likely will continue to be for a privileged person like me.

We will survive this disaster of an election. Meanwhile, I will do what I  can to support my immigrant and transgender friends and neighbors. Hopefully, after two years of Trump and his cabal showing their incompetence and true colors, there will be a Democratic landslide in the midterm elections of 2026, which will limit Trump’s ability to create havoc. And maybe some time after that I will be able to go back to reading about national politics.