juicy plum

Domestically speaking, this is a sleepy transition time. We're all keeping cold symptoms at bay--except the kitten, who, having succumbed, is quite sneezy and even more lapbound than usual. She's getting better, though. G was feeling crappy enough to call in sick, but well enough to work at his new job all day from his computer, so yesterday was a nice sneak preview of what life might be like after he leaves his office job for good in two weeks. It was great. He was very successfully, in his industry's parlance, squashing bugs all day, and therefore in a great mood. He gets more and more excited about his new situation as he is able to apply himself to the work part-time. He made us a yummy lunch of grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. I later cooked a garlic-y bean, chicken and kale stew for dinner. It was dreamily dreary outside and very, very cozy inside.

I spent my time during the day knitting and watching cable news networks. Wow! Hope! Haven't felt that after an election in quite awhile. I think of myself as independent, though I always vote with the lefties, because I consider the donkey party, while being a WAY better choice than those belicose elephants, as essentially the other side of the same tired old, tarnished coin. I hold out hope for a viable new party or two to emerge in my lifetime, with truly new perspectives, and dialectic approaches to the same old petrified, habitual and entrenched political battles that we're all so very tired of. The so-called discourse has lost all of its honesty, all of its juice. (See: Jon Stewart on Crossfire, October, 2004.) I want comprehensive overhaul. I do not believe that that one side that I always vote with is able to provide it. I don't want one side of this tiresome game to win, anyway. In fact, I don't believe that's even possible. I'd rather see new guys, thinkers, cherry-picking the best of all possible systems and approaches and synthesizing balanced and inclusive solutions. I want off the see-saw.

This whole red state/blue state thing is hackneyed, false, divisive and dangerous. I have lived in the bluest of blue states all my life, and I notice that even here the margin of victory in many if not most races is not all that wide. If we looked at a map of the country by district with the colors red and blue blended together based on the percentages, it'd be a lovely shaded purple, like a plum. It was just as purple two years ago as it is now.

Here's a purple map by state, proportional to population, that someone put together after 2004:



We are clearly all in this together. Furthermore, while I'm sure some of the folks that have tended to vote the other way in recent years way may actually be people I wouldn't like or trust, the the same could certainly be said for my side as well, and the vast majority of those other guys are just folks, not all that different from me, when I get right down to it. Just people doing the best they can with what they know. Could they really all be stupid? Are we really all morally bankrupt? What good can come of this wholesale oversimplification?

Our recent election is a start toward a new era, or at least a step away from the old. We have a two-party government again. This provides another opportunity for real dialogue or--dare I?--cooperation as we stumble our way toward growth. The system may be corrupt, and it may fail to live up to our ideals again and again, but it has worked in many important ways in the past, and it's all we have for the moment. I hope we can begin to remember in our dark days who we really intend to be, and that our failures and embarrassments motivate us to correction and improvement.