“Now that all your worry has proved such an Unlucrative Business, why not get a better job?” – Hafiz.

Lao Tzu wrote that being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. It takes courage to apologize, or admit a mistake. It takes courage to blame yourself, and not others.

I think it is true that love is our destiny and that love requires so much more courage than hatred and fear.

Courage is on my mind this morning, as I follow the New York City bombing story and find myself filled with admiration for the people of New York City, who were attacked once more Sunday night and who responded once again with courage and resilience, not with hatred or fear.

I am weary of seeing white people in Wisconsin and Iowa and Texas pee all over themselves at Trump rallies over the prospect of immigrants and refugees coming to live in their states, the tough-talking, gun-toting people of Texas are absolutely terrified at the prospect of Syrian refugee children coming to live anywhere near them, they are spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, to block them and reject them.

This morning, as the city and federal police did a remarkable,  rapid and effective job of tracking down the alleged bomber, Donald Trump went on TV to promise us that things “are only going to get worse.” Politics aside, I have to say that he is not speaking to me, he is not speaking for me.

Hatred and doom and bragging are not my idea of courage, it is my very literal idea of cowardice. I think Jane Goodall is onto something when she points out that Trump behaves much like a male chimpanzee performing their dominance rituals.

When you live in fear. When you run from love. When you can’t apologize. Or make a mistake. Or blame others for your mistakes. Can someone be responsible for us if they cannot take any responsibility for themselves?

For me, courage is about continuing. Churchill said that success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. J.K. Rowling wrote that it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

I thought of this this morning when I got an e-mail from a friend in Chicago which said “Oh, my God, did you hear about the bombing, this means the election is over. Trump will win.”  She was, she said, terrified. I was sorry to read it, I felt no such emotion.

I had no answer for her, but what I thought was that she had lost both her faith and her courage. To me, the bombing spoke of the many good reasons that Donald Trump will not win, not the reasons he might.

People can and should vote for who they wish, but I have great faith in the American spirit, the faith I saw revealed in New York City this morning, as millions of commuters came to work as usual, and people squeezed past police ropes to get to work, and I didn’t hear a single word of fear or hatred coming from a single commuter, resident, police officer or politician.

it was for me, a stirring evocation of the true American spirit, the country of immigrants, the resilient and determined people.

In the Emerald City, people simply continued, they did not surrender their values or way of life to people who would stuff ball bearings into bombs and slaughter innocents without mercy, and in the name of God.

Things are already better, I thought.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and you either see the world in that way or you don’t.That is the dividing line in our country, the boundary, the struggle.

So Donald Trump is a coward to me, as well as someone who lies as naturally as he breathes. He hates rather than loves. He sees the worst in us, not the best. He runs from his mistakes and blames others. He  promotes hatred and fear. Too many checks on my scoreboard to rationalize standing alongside him. He gives me the gift of understanding what it is I love about my country, not what it is I hate.

I wrote some months ago that Donald Trump will not become the next President of the United States, and I believe it even more so now than before. I don’t really care how close it gets, or what the squiggly polls show, or how many times Hillary Clinton steps on her rigid and prideful toes.

I will stay strong in my beliefs in what it means to be an American, and Donald Trump represents nothing about what I believe being an American is all about. I don’t write this to tell you who to vote for or what to believe, only to be open about what I believe. That, too, is what being an American is all about.

It is not about living in fear, it is the opposite of that.

I will not live in fear of Donald Trump, or of his victory, and should he win the election and prove me wrong, I will admit my mistake and remember that failure is not fatal and success is not final. I will continue on.

That is what courage is for me.