Sunday, December 10, 2000

 

1:48 a.m. Well, in just a few more hours, we'll know if the Supreme Court has totally shut down the Democratic process, oops, I mean party. I'm trying not to fixate and to instead enjoy the joys of the season and the beauties of the landscape and you know what? I keep on thinking about it.

I'm taking it personally, and that's not healthy. I've anthropomorphized those two-dimensional politicians and I'm acting as though what they say really means something to me, individually. On the other hand, what else would you be thinking when you go to the trouble to slosh through the elements and enter the voting booth?

It's just me and the big idea in there.

So, although it's not healthy to worry about things out of your control, it's a hard habit to break. If the Supreme Court, whose members I've never bothered to think much about before this, decide that they want George Bush to win on a partial vote, so be it. They are, finally, the bosses.

And when you have bosses in charge of you, you'd be wise to stop worrying about what they tell you. Give it no further thought. Go on about your business with a light heart. Move on. Nothing more to see here.

Tonight I watched an interesting little movie-ette, a small documentary about people who are 100 years and older, and it was very encouraging. Most of the men and women looked as if they were in their 70s, even their late 60s. Some were a touch older-looking, but if you never saw their ages posted to the screen, you'd *never* know they were all over 100.

One woman was still working as a proofreader at the local daily and many of them were pretty happily puttering around the Internet. In fact, one of them could be reading these words right this minute and to that distinguisted elder I say: Hi! I, for one, will never refer to you as a "senior" now that we're both out of high school.

The point of the movie was to hear from people who've experienced both horse-drawn carriages and jet planes as common conveyances; to learn what people who've read by gaslight and liquid crystal have to say about World Wars and world webs.

These were the women who cooked with coal and scrubbed clothing by hand and who wrested the right to vote from the iron grip of the powerful who thought they knew better. The right to vote. The right to cut your hair short and to wear pants in the cold and to drink liquor in public and to work past the age of 65 if you want to. The right to have an abortion if you must.

Oh well. Easy come, easy go.