I had the day off today, a welcome treat from my boss. It has been lovely having these three days to cocoon. Did not budge from my nest Saturday and Sunday, only poked my snoot out to water the plants and feed the outside kits. Watched some old, really, really old movies on t.v., blessedly with no commercials. Listened only to classical music, having had it up to here with all the political ads and commercials trying to sell me stuff I either already have (but now there's a bigger, better, upgraded version!) or stuff I do not need but, boy howdy, they do try to make it seem as if it is imperative you purchase it. Today I woke up early, made coffee, took a quick shower, knocked on my neighbor's door and we were off to the Garden Center, where we had a grand time picking out impatiens (pink), marigolds (could not resist their cheery yellow-orange faces) and three different kinds of mint (orange mint, spear mint and chocolate mint). Even more potting soil and one planter which her husband will poke holes in this weekend. They should really make them with holes already, do not understand why they've stopped that practice. Anyway, we had a splendid lunch, went window-shopping for her daughter's upcoming homecoming dance, it was a nice, relaxing day. One thing I noticed is that for all the talk of people not having money or jobs, there were an awful lot of people buying stuff everywhere we went. Maybe the economy is recovering? I sure hope so, because frankly I have had it with the doom and gloom brigade.All the while we were out and about, I couldn't help but think of Hurricane Sandy's victims up north, their lives completely upside down, some of them living in their cars, from what I have read and seen in the news. All these people banding together, helping one another, others giving out food and clothes, all these different, nameless acts of courage, like the man that risked his life to rescue a taxi driver in danger of drowning. He was safe in his home, but ran out into the storm to rescue a stranger. He said he could not just stand there and watch someone die. Wow, he should meet the guy who didn't open the door to the mother of the two little boys who drowned. Talk about ying and yang. You so often only hear the bad, thank God they are also reporting on people doing good. They tend to get lost in the ratings war.
I read where they may be letting some of those affected vote by email, although you have to wonder if they have no electricity, no power, you really think they are going to be worried about plugging in a computer, if they actually have one or have access to one? One man said that yeah, he'd lost his house, but his family is okay and absolutely he will be voting. I tip my hat to that gentleman, because although voting is extremely important to me, I believe if I were in his situation I would be in a corner, howling. Human resilience always surprises me. We can get hit by anything and still we carry on. We help others in worse situations than ours. In instances like these we see the best of the human spirit come shining through. We also see the worst, I've read reports where there have been looters. Personally, I believe if you get caught stealing food, water, blankets to keep warm, you should, maybe, depending on the circumstances, such as was the house you broke into inhabited or empty, did you grab the blanket away from someone else who needed it, you get my drift, get a free pass. But if you are looting for material stuff? Out of avarice, greed? Off to jail, zippity zap. But, I digress, so, okay, off the soapbox.
At any rate, we finally came home, unloaded all our gardening stuff and took a well-deserved break. I was done. Going to so many places in one day, dealing with crowds (not my favorite thing) pretty well much pushed me way outside my comfort zone. So, I came in, changed into my comfies, made some tea and chilled. A little while later, I headed out to grub in the garden. Digging my hands into potting soil, weeding, watering, getting filthy from head to toe, clears my head and calms my soul. While living with my aunt I kept a planter full of potting soil and when things got too intense with her, I'd just go stick my hands in there, it was a form of therapy, I guess. Grubbing in the dirt I thought of the Presidential election tomorrow. Finally, I hope, all the political yammering will be over. No more one political ad slamming one candidate, followed by another political add slamming the politician whose ad you just suffered through. I really, really, REALLY wish instead of spending so much money and time on those ads, the candidates would put that money where their mouth is, i.e., helping those less fortunate. If you have a bazillion dollars to spend on advertising yourself and doing your very, very best to make the other guy(s) look bad, then you should spend an equal amount on charity. For every ad they put out there, they should contribute the same amount to charity. For every negative ad, they should contribute double. For every snarky remark, smarmy attitude, supercilious comment, they should contribute a certain amount. Oh, wait, they're politicians, no can do. Smarmy and snarky are part of of their DNA. When I finished playing in the dirt, I came in, showered, changed into other (clean) comfies and had a most satisfying phone visit with FGM Martha. Our conversations always leave me smiling, raring to go and full of wonderful ideas. Cleansed of all the negative politicking ... is that an oxymoron? Turned on the t.v. and there they were ... the political ads. Good grief, at this point I am thinking maybe we should fine them, have a limit on the amount of ads, but PLEASE have some type of limit on the amount of hot air they can blow into the atmosphere. They say a nor'easter is heading towards the areas hit by Hurricane Sandy and there are a lot of people still without power, no heat. Well, I thought, send a few politicians up there and have 'em talk, the copious quantity of hot air they spew should be enough to heat a couple of counties. At least.
The other day I took advantage of early voting, yay! The line was pretty long, but I took my little folding chair, a book, a magazine and water and just scooched along on my chair. Two men got into a REALLY loud argument while in line. They were from different political parties, both were Cuban-American, switching easily from English to Spanish and back again. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when one of them kept telling the other "Estas completamente equivocado!" (You are completely wrong!) something my Dad used to say was a standard Cuban saying. I wanted to get up and ask them "You don't think he's partially right?" But thought better of it. Didn't think they would appreciate the sarcasm. For a while there it got pretty hot and I know the rest of the people were thinking fists were going to start flying. But it was really funny how despite their ongoing argument, they kept pace with the line moving. They didn't miss a beat. People were sort of distancing themselves as much as they could from the arguing twosome. A while later a squad car drove by and they both shut up. I wanted to hug those cops. Not a peep out of the two for the rest of the time. Silence, at last.
I think we are one of the few countries, if not the only one, where every four, sometimes eight, years there is a complete shift of power and there are no riots, no burning of cars, no violence, no bloodshed. We are so blessed to live in this country. Whether we are Republican or Democrat (or Independent), Catholic, Jewish, whatever your Christian faith choice here, agnostic or atheist (which I really have a hard time with that concept, but let's not get into a theological discussion here), we are free to worship, or not, as we choose. We are free to vote, as we choose. Do we realize what a privilege it is to be here? Imperfect as we may be, and we are, still we are the best. We should focus on our similarities, not yammer about our differences. Because although I do not know about the rest of the country, not one ad, not one debate, not one comment one way or the other, made me change my mind about my choice. They just made me wish they'd shut their yaps, do what they said they would do and respect each other. Then again, I'm talking about politicians here, behavior of that sort is not to be expected of them.
I voted not because I think my choice is going to fix all the wrongs and make it all better. I voted for him because I think he will do the least harm to our country, our world, our planet. Let's see what the final outcome is. Whoever wins, we owe the victor our respect. We may not like him, but he will be our President and, as such, must be, should be respected. This is a trait that appears to be missing from much of the public today. Respect. They toss it out the window and call it freedom of speech. I disagree, that's like calling the imbeciles that go after survivors of disasters, accidents, and stick a microphone in their faces asking "How do you feel?" journalists. That's not journalism, that's sensationalism. And, yes, I know I am repeating myself. Back to my original point, we owe the victor our respect, because like him or not, he will be our leader for the next four years. Let's keep him in our prayers, whoever he turns out to be.
United We Stand
Divided We Fall ...
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