After the longest, most expensive election “season” ever, you’re probably like me and everyone else in the country – eager to step back and catch your breath.

At the same time, we’re all asking ourselves what the election results will actually mean in our lives. We can try to imagine how policies might affect us individually, but from a freelancer's perspective, it’s important to remember the power we have to build collective solutions to the issues that affect us.

And Freelancers Union is moving forward as planned, creating solutions for our common good. Freelancers Medical, the nation’s first health care practice just for freelancers, is opening in Brooklyn, NY, next week. Health care reform stands and the health insurance CO-OPs that Freelancers Union is sponsoring in New Jersey, New York, and Oregon are under way. Next fall, thousands of freelancers in these states will have access to affordable, high-quality health care like never before.

We’re building a national movement, solving the challenges we all face and nurturing an economy in which mutual support fuels our individual initiative. That’s what the battle between entropy and idealism is all about. On one side, it’s the chaos of individuals going it alone, struggling to stitch together a safety net and a sustainable work life. On the other side is the power of the group uniting so we can thrive. I, for one, am betting on the idealist impulse because we’ve already seen it work.

With the elections over, Washington is back at work. And part of our shared effort is to call for public policy changes that will give us the tools we need to put our idealism to work. I’ll discuss three specific policy objectives in weeks to come. But first, I hope you’ve had the chance to catch that breath, close your eyes, and picture the freelance nation we’re building together.