Though I remember waking up in Boston the morning of 9/11/2001, any sense of disorientation and despondency I felt was unmatched by that I experienced roughly fifteen years later, on 11/9/2016. On that morning, I became unmoored. What is this Country I live in? Who are my neighbors? What am I doing? Who am I?

Right or wrong, self-serving or not, out-of-touch, perhaps: On 11/9, I felt the thinkers and givers and doers among us had their contributions and generosity flouted. Demagoguery, fear of others, and small thinking appeared to win the hour (if not longer). My candidate was a public servant of distinction whose best days might have been ahead, but instead had become only, well, just a national treasure.

By a few days later, I had resolved to do find a way forward, as my gut told me I had something to offer. I felt I could help my friends and others gain their bearings and find a new path in this new world we had inherited, by virtue of an entirely unforeseen election result.

Politically, my outlook is grounded in being a health care provider having spent most of my adult life in the large cities in which I had schooled, trained, and worked: most recently, in Oakland and San Francisco. I moved to rural California several years ago, in part, to re-experience aspects of my youth growing up in Mississippi and Virginia, where I had learned something about rural America.

Topher’s childhood home – Jackson, Mississippi

I also have some other assorted perspectives contributing to a unique point of view: I am gay, was the son of two ministers, grew up relatively poor, am a survivor of sexual abuse, and have tried to bootstrap my way to a life I can enjoy. As a young non-profit agency worker, I survived the Reagan era, during which my people were killed through gross inaction. For that reason my chief commitment since the mid-eighties is working on HIV/AIDS.

And it turns out like many of you, I am far too affected by any lack of kindness and grace. So I have admired the many pronouncements of redoubled commitment to erect a powerful opposition to those who would tear down what the last eight years have delivered our Country.

My own way forward is not fully determined just yet. But will try to guard against what a friend recently wrote: blurring the distinction between self-care and self-indulgence. I’ll try to accomplish some the former (for myself and others), while seeking out more kindness, and offering some along the way, too. Looking forward to finding a Way4word together.