Bigly changes ahead. Huge.

Tomorrow everything changes. The universe is still expanding, yet it feels like humanity is shrinking.

As a dangerous and delusional sex pest is sworn in as leader of the free world, it’s hard to feel positive about the weekend, never mind the next four years.

Eight years ago I was pregnant and full of hope as I watched Obama’s inauguration. Sure-footed steps of progress had been made and it seemed like the world was going to be a better place for my daughter and unborn son. It was not unreasonable to think that the world’s most powerful country had really turned the corner.

And yet here we are. And, in the UK, our own government is poised to reverse decades of growth towards globalisation in favour of selfish and misguided protectionism.

Elsewhere in the world millions of people are homeless, displaced because of futile and horrific  acts of war, because of governments’ abdication of responsibility for the welfare of their citizens, because of systemic failure to value justice and fairness over economies and power.

There is, to use the technical term, a metric fuck tonne of shit to wade through.

But wade through it we must.

My niece is 17 and wants to be an interpreter at the European Parliament. With Brexit looming, she feels as if her choices have been snatched away.

Fuck that. There will be a way to make it happen, whatever those at Whitehall and in the White House are doing to drag us backwards in time.

Fuck that (and fuck them) should be our mantra whenever we face sexism, racism, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance.

They might be the government, left or right, who make a lot of shitty decisions.

They might be your teacher, who tries to tell you what you are or are not capable of.

They might be toy producers, who think boys like guns and girls like dolls.

They might be your boss, who overlooks you for promotion because you have a vagina.

They might be a woman on the bus who makes rude remarks to someone wearing a hijab.

They might be some troll on Twitter who says the gender wage gap is ‘not a thing’.

They might be Donald Trump, who has the nuclear codes but still can’t get a Springsteen tribute band to play at his party.

This is not a call to embrace nihilism or even cynicism – quite the opposite.

We need to choose hope over fear.

I appreciate that I write this from a position of relative privilege. I am not living in poverty, or war, or oppression. But those of us who have the freedom from those things must try to effect change, however small, in order to help both ourselves and those who don’t.

Go to the protests and marches. Question everything. Always vote. Challenge shitty behaviour wherever you hear or see it. Donate, if you can.

But, more importantly, don’t let the bad stuff skew your view of the world. Horrible things are happening, and it’s a worry. But good things are also happening. All the time. Huge things. Beautiful. (See what I did there?)

Book groups are happening in pubs. People are tackling marathons to raise money for charities. Nine out of ten people would still run after you with your credit card if you dropped it in the street. Facebook groups exist to reunite small children with lost toys.

I had lunch with my little boy today and he told me about the book he was reading in school and the poem he is learning for Burns’ Day. He pointed out all the right angles he could see from the window and he wondered, on a scale of 1-10, just how spicy his spicy crisps were.

He mentioned that Donald Trump will become President tomorrow. He knows Trump is stupid and dangerous. But all he really wants to know is ‘does this mean we can’t go to Disney World next year?’

We could decide not to go to Disney World because Trump is a monster and we want to avoid the USA out of principle. We could decide not to go because Disney World is a corporate creation that encourages mindless consumerism and Walt Disney was also, allegedly, a fascist.

Or, we could go because Disney World is wonderful. It exists to entertain and delight. It is colourful and clean and bright. The sun shines on your face all day and there are fireworks at night. There’s candy and people smiling on every corner.

There is magic, if you simply believe in it.