Ramblings. As in: Have Words -Will Ramble. As in: Ramble: to write or talk aimlessly or without sequence of ideas, to proceed with turns and twists; meander As In: observances of an everyday life in passing through the spectrum of extraordinary.
Yard signs and Friendly neighbors
Monday, November 03, 2008
Well, husband and I were driving around the other night. Going from community to back woods community to visit someone sick and we kept passing by one house that would have a McCain yard sign and the very next door house was an Obama yard sign and he said, "Wonder how they're getting along?" The way married people do when they don't have to use a lot of words because they know w hat each other are thinking. And I said, "I was just wondering the same thing. " Because I was.
>I guess what amazes me is that in the middle of all the passion and the fury, of all the people at opposite poles on this one, here we are driving through the back roads of rural Tennessee and hey - nobody is ripping up someone else's yard signs and no one is filling them full of buckshot either.
I thought about the question a little longer, mulling it over as we kept taking dips and turns until I finally said, "Awww, I think they'll be alright. Reckon they are gettin' along okay."
And I do. Fact is. Most of these folks have been neighbors for a long, long time. They've nursed one another through sickness and economic hard times. They've helped each other when things we're broken, run down, or gone missing. And on Wednesday morning, after the dust settles, and eventually after all the yard signs come down, they will still be neighbors. And so will we.
Let's face it no matter what any of us said, we're not leaving the country. We're going to keep on being who we are and try to get better at being just that. And maybe, just maybe, the highlighted differences in this campaign will open the door for true, honest to goodness, heart-to-heart communication. Maybe those neighbors can go out and lean on the fence and stick a toe in the dirt and just learn to talk about it awhile. Without needing to take a nerve pill and lie down.
My mother and her neighbor have been living next door to one another for hmmm, forty years now. One of them is a staunch Republican and the other a 'yellow-dog Democrat' as the other one calls her. They have mourned the passing of each other's husbands, fed each others pets, brought in the mail, made chicken soup, and survived more than one Hurricane together.
The hurricane of this election is not going to destroy the fiber of their friendship. And it isn't going to do the same for this country. We won't let it. We're better than that. I just know it down, deep in my bones. Because it's going to take all of us to get through this next four years and the forty after that. All of us. Color us red, blue, purple or tapioca for all I care. Makes no difference. And any voice that rises up around you that tries to tell you different, that makes a line in the sand between you and that neighbor of yours - watch that voice. Careful there. Or you'll drink a little of that cup, too and who needs that kind of poisen?
Take a deep breath. Count to a hundred and ten. Read the Good Book. Or any good book (Like maybe A Girl Named Zippy, or Moby Dick or All Over but the Shoutin' or To Kill a Mockingbird. Or listen to some Allman Brothers, or Al Green, or Alanis Morriset, or Alan Jackson. We're going to get through this thing - together. As one nation.
Happy voting on Tuesday. And congratulations and condolences to all. Labels: elections, mccain, obama
posted by River Jordan at 3:21 PM
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