The election has been decided. But America is still waiting — like it has all year

On one hand, it’s heartening to know that waiting — and all of the anxiety and melodrama it brings — has always been a part of the electoral process.

Waiting is all we’ve been doing this year.

Waiting for test results.

Waiting for a vaccine.

Waiting to see loved ones.

Waiting for things to get better.

And now, even with Joe Biden chosen as the 46th US President after months of excruciating political rancor, it feels like the end still isn’t in sight.

Lehigh County workers count ballots in Allentown, PA.

In Georgia, which appears to have flipped blue by the thinnest of margins, the race is so tight it will likely go to a requested recount. In Pennsylvania, election officials say it could take several days to complete a full tally of votes.

Even when a winner is unanimously declared, President Trump has made it clear he isn’t going down without a fight. Several states are dealing with lawsuits filed by his campaign based on empty allegations of voter fraud. Trump himself has said he will not concede.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has swept over the nation with renewed force, possibly bringing more lockdowns, more uncertainty, and more worries that a return to normal is still terminally out of reach.

We have a penchant for instant gratification

Voters wait in a long line to cast their ballots in Oklahoma City.

There are two reasons this wait feels particularly painful.

One, we have a penchant for instant gratification.

It’s clear in how we consume: About 126 million Americans have Amazon Prime memberships, all buying and receiving in neat 2-day increments. There are more than 195 million Netflix subscribers nationwide with access to more hours of entertainment than one person could physically watch in their lifetime.

If one has money to spend and means to acquire it, we’re used to getting exactly what we want when we want it.

This immediacy is a cornerstone of our commerce and our life. It comes at a premium, leading to the illusion that money and power can make anything appear out of thin air.

But we’re having to hold our breath

A commuter reads a book while waiting on a subway platform in Brooklyn.

But money can’t buy election results, and it can’t buy our way out of any of the problems this year has visited upon us.

The world has thrown millions toward a solution to end the global pandemic that has all but frozen us in time.

But ultimately, a virus can’t be cajoled, convinced or paid to go away, and it could take months before a viable solution even appears, let alone is put into play.

We were told, specifically, that we may not have an instant relief from the long months of political rancor that led us to the fulcrum of this presidential election.

And yet, we hold our breath until we’re blue in the face.

Because we don’t like waiting. Because we want it to be over. Because it feels like everything is happening all at once, and yet, nothing is.

We’re no longer in control

Adjacent to our routines of instant gratification is the very American idea that we are architects of our own destiny.

“Part of the challenge right now is, we would like to control things and decide things on our terms,” says Lynn Bufka, the American Psychological Association’s senior director of practice transformation and quality.

“We’re used to making decisions about how our lives function, when we do things, where we go. Relying on an external process can be hard”