As Election Day approaches and the campaign of the Republican candidate for president grows increasingly ugly and menacing to the political, economic and moral health of our imperfect but aspirational democracy, I’m trying to figure out how to manage my emotions and maintain my sanity in the uncertainty of the weeks and months to come, and on the 50-50 chance that he could win — not on the popular vote but per the perversions of the Electoral College.

That is, to me, a literally sickening prospect. The sight of his image, the sound of his voice, the outrageousness of his lies and threats send waves of nausea through me, make me feel physically ill, like food poisoning. The prospect of having to witness his malignant behavior and suffer his chaos and corruption and brutality and incompetence for the next four years is barely imaginable — and yet it could happen, and we may well have to deal with that horrifying reality.

Resistance to such a regime can take many forms, and street demonstrations may at times be called for, but to publicly declare oneself a member of “The Resistance” is not a good idea. Resistance to an autocrat with the power to have you arrested is best kept on the down-low, with the creation of diverse discreet subversions of power (as in occupied France during World War II) being more effective and survivable than direct confrontation. We will have to use our imaginations to comprehend and undermine totalitarian impulses. We will need to keep our wits sharp and our mental health in tip-top shape and pace ourselves to get through what could be coming.

The mental component is critical in any crisis; keeping a cool head is the first order of business. That is a challenge when a cognitively incoherent psycho-sociopath is dominating public discourse or a hurricane is blowing away your house or the deportation police are banging on your door. But equanimity is an attitude that must be cultivated. One way I have managed, so far, to keep from losing it is to limit my news consumption to the essentials — which for me is admittedly a lot — and to indulge in small nonpolitical pleasures as much as possible: music and other fine and domestic arts, cooking, gardening, walking, noticing, being alert for beauty, small kindnesses, sharing meals and conversation with friends, staying in touch with loved ones. I find such simple pleasures to be grounding and fortifying for dealing with everyday aggravations, let alone a political catastrophe of historic magnitude.

I have no illusions about Kamala Harris being able to fix our country’s or the world’s myriad malfunctions, but she strikes me as a decent person with strong political skills and keen intelligence whose values have not changed, as she has said, but whose experience close to the heights of power has taught her the nuances and long-game strategies of what is politically possible. So instead of the Berkeley radical she might have been thanks to her activist parents, she has evolved into a more moderate and pragmatic yet principled politician. Even a democratic socialist such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has learned in office that to be effective as a lawmaker, you sometimes have to make deals with Republicans. That is the difference between ideology and governance.

I think Harris is as good a president as we could hope for at this historic moment, and I will vote for her with enthusiasm and high hopes.

But even if she is elected, we must be ready for some rough months ahead while the liars and deniers and dirty-tricksters do their worst best to overturn the results and install their strongman. I’m not a rabbi or a shrink or an influencer, but if only for my own mental health I will use you, reader, as my confidant and spill my beans for your Saturday morning coffee as you witness my breakdown — more like the musical breakdown of a bluegrass fiddler than anything, requiring hospitalization or incarceration — and maybe these riffs will be useful to you, too, as we sail into a cyclone the likes of which we haven’t known.

But what an adventure!

Stephen Kessler’s column appears on Saturdays