Election

By the time you’re read ing this, the last vote in the 2024 Presidential election will have been submitted. We will have reached the culmination of the last however many months of talking, debating, and posturing. We likely won’t know the results yet, but the die has been cast.

As I reflect on the last few months I’m reminded of the last few elections and how it seems like each election cycle gets more and more contentious. Come spring of an election year it’s like we forget that after the votes have been tallied we’ll still have to see each other.

We say terrible things about the folks on the other side of the aisle and then have to work together or sit down for Thanksgiving dinner at their table. It seems like that turkey will taste a little bitter when everyone at the table knows you called the guy across from you all sorts of names on social media a few weeks before.

There was a time when I was much more politically engaged. I’d like to say I drew back because of my belief in God’s sovereignty or because of my faith in the checks and balances that is the American system, but that wouldn’t be true.

I drew back because it makes me too angry. And ultimately it’s just not worth being that tore up about something I can only marginally impact.

The election may go the way you wanted it to, or it may not, but you’re reading this so that means you woke up this morning, which is more than some folks can say. The world will keep spinning no matter how things shake out and we’ll be celebrating Christmas soon no matter who wins.

I understand the issues at play in these elections are important and matter a great deal to all of us, but every four years we get ourselves all worked up and then once the dust settles we get back to normal life, so I can’t help but wonder if it’d be easier to just skip the getting worked up part and keep on with normal life.