This morning our youngest son unexpectedly showed up and interrupted our morning coffee routine. He didn’t want coffee but he accepted a couple of sweet clementines and sat down to join the conversation.

After a few minutes of sharing family news, we moved back to where we had been before our son arrived: politics. Tomorrow night we will know if that Blue Wave really did wash over the voting booths in the midterms.

My husband and I are not as sanguine as some others seem to be. We don’t believe that elections will automatically improve things. Our own governor, a woman we praised for her integrity and had great hopes for, broke campaign promises almost as soon as she took the oath. But we continue lobbying her office for the changes we think our commonwealth needs.

Our son believes that no matter who is elected Big Money always wins. He is a union apprenticeship instructor and interacts with a swath of young people. He says many younger men are white nationalists. They don’t usually vote, he says, but they are here among us as a destabilizing element. He did vote, but he isn’t expecting changes that will make his economic life easier.

A few of us have always written letters and sent emails and made phone calls to our elected representatives. We have seen that this pressure, and the pressure of big public demonstrations, can sometimes influence legislators. But are these spotty results sufficient to turn the Ship of State around?

How do we create enthusiasm for the possibility of positive change? How do we convert the disheartened to active citizens?

These are questions for those of us with optimism.