The squirrel cussed me like a drunken sailor, so I saluted him with my coffee.
The fan hummed in the background, although the morning was markedly cooler. It was just not cold enough to kill the mosquitoes, so the eternal paradox of our household continued with the fan running whilst we slept under a thick blanket. I was barefooted, but had a comfortable old cardigan draped over my shoulders. One of our non-migrating migratory songbirds was warbling.
Ahh, the joys of autumn in Southeastern North Carolina, where if you don’t like the weather, just wait an hour or two.
While many people curse the time change, I welcome it, since I like mornings and love the night. True, it would be nice to be able to get more done after work of an evening, but artificially adding and subtracting an hour to the day doesn’t bother me. What needs to be done, needs to be done, regardless of what man does to the clock.
The northeast breeze was freshening, with just the barest hint of the real chill a couple hundred miles away on the Labrador Current. Although I had raked the yard the day before, it looked like all the trees had shivered in the night, losing most of their red-orange-gold clothes in the process.
The goats were quietly greeting the day, poor old Taliana was whickering for her bucket of sweet feed, and the dogs were trying to decide if they should stay in bed or relish the morning smells. Far off in the distance a pack of deer hounds struck trail. I wished them a good hunt, while simultaneously hoping the deer was not one of our regular visitors, and was fleet of foot.
The shadow from the pines crossed the yard and were starting to shrink as the sun rose higher. A stubborn star hung on in the western sky. On the way to work, two fishermen waved to me from their regular spots on a bridge. For just a few minutes, everything was serene.
Sadly, I knew it wouldn’t last.
Elections were a few days away at that point, and my inbox was full of messages from various and sundry political hopefuls, each trashing the other and promising to save the country. Social media wasn’t much better – there was a nasty namecalling message from someone I barely knew who told me in no uncertain terms that not only was I a bad person, but I was possibly one of the baddest bad-bad people he/she had ever met. I briefly considered answering, possibly even in kind, but I decided to play with the baby goat instead. The goat was appreciative.
However Tuesday’s elections finally work out – and I am confident they won’t be completely worked out for a few days, if not weeks – the squirrels will still cuss. The baby goat will still need his bottle. My dogs will still debate whether to burrow under the covers or play in the sunrise. The hounds will still run, at least for a while and dependent on who’s elected. Fishermen will sill fish. I’ll still be neighbors, albeit digital neighbors, with my critic.
A couple years back, I was talking with a state legislator who had just been chewed out in the aisle of the grocery store by his former schoolteacher, a lady of the age where all any Southern man of quality can do is stand there and say those the three most important phrases: yes m’am, no m’am, I understand, m’am. Our discussion was centered on the fact that when all the ballots are counted, all the challenges are heard, and people are finally sworn in — God still reigns, and we all still have to be neighbors.
Too many folks have cast those basic tenets aside this year, and I wonder how many bonds have been not just broken, but shredded and burned. With both campaigns swearing the other has grand plans of retribution, it’s going to take calm heads to make sure the ones who take rhetoric as instructions stop to take a breath.
Political campaigns, especially in North Carolina, are always nasty. I think campaigns tend to draw out people who enjoy hurting others, in every way possible, but find themselves held in check during normal times. Signs get stolen, dirty tricks are played, lies are told, either in frantic whispers or televised screams, lawyers get rich, scandals are strategically released and plain old hatred rises to the top like lard in a rendering pot. It’s sad and shameful.
When times are as dangerous as they are now, when some folks on both sides have spent the last seven years being angry, an anger which is encouraged by media and politicians – it just gets worse. I don’t know where it will stop, and that worries me a little.
I know of at least one person who had a heart attack that was directly related to the election cycle; I know of another who (in my opinion, justly) ended up with a black eye and some other injuries. There are others who refused to go to a particular church anymore because someone supported another candidate. That caused a break in the church, and supporters of both left. How many found a new church home, I have no idea, but they obviously all needed more Jesus and less politics in their lives.
When it is all said and done, I hope Americans have made their choices based on prayer or at least common sense, not TikTok videos, celebrity endorsements and pundits. I have dear, dear friends in third world countries who would love to have the opportunities enjoyed by even the poorest American. The votes we cast in recent days are a sacred duty to our children and grandchildren as well as to those who gave so much so we could have choices.
I sincerely hope, when everything is finished, the last political signs have been thrown away and the last lawsuit decided that we can all just stand still as the squirrels cuss, the birds sing, the hounds run, and maybe even see a new day dawn where folks can vehemently disagree, but still be if not exactly friends, at least neighbors and fellow Americans.
