Today is October 18 and I’m writing to the person I’ll be on November 6, the day this paper will arrive in my mailbox in Eureka. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I do this sometimes, write to my future self. It feels childish in some ways, like creating an elementary school time capsule, but I’m a middle-aged woman who still reads books about wizards and eats peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for breakfast, so what do I have to prove?
Today was one of those hot, uneasy days we shouldn’t have in late October, and Dad and I tagged the two-year heifers and reattached a fallen board to the frame of the sliding barn door. The work made me tired, sore in my shoulders, and happy to be alive. I wish my future self dozens more days exactly like this one, except hopefully cooler.
I’ve always been inclined to choose principles over people, which can make for a lonely life. Fortunately, the principles most important to me – preserving human dignity, protecting kids and the elderly, championing simple human kindness – are shared by the best kind of people, so I don’t find myself conflicted too often. When I have to climb on my moral high horse, I do so with spurs on.
I don’t talk about politics often in mixed company. It’s bad form for a sometimes-journalist, and rarely results in anyone’s mind being changed. But if someone were to ask me which candidates to support, I wouldn’t point back to a party, but to those principles and ask them to draw their own conclusions. Which candidate is interested in preserving human dignity? Do they protect children (all children) and the elderly? Is this person a champion of human kindness?
Now’s the time you might point out the fact that I’m a grown woman who reads books about wizards and am probably a little naïve. I’m not about to argue with that. I know there are a lot of things about our country and political structure that are beyond my area of expertise – corn futures come to mind – but I’m not naïve when it comes to Americans. I’ve met the best of them, and they’re the ones doing the work.
The best of us went through hours of training to volunteer at the polls, shelving personal political opinions to ensure the safe, transparent and equitable execution of the democratic process. The best of us did hard, uncomfortable things, made sacrifices and voted with our feet and our dollars to keep our neighbors afloat during this terrible year. The best of us are at work every day, doing what has to be done to keep all of us safe, fed, seen and living in a condition of dignity.
So, future me, the person reading this on November 6, when – pundits tell me – the election may or may not be decided, this is a reminder about the work. Whatever happens, you must get up and do the work. The work will always be there; there will never be a shortage of good work to be done, or people who need you to do it. Think of today, this barn, this board. It has a place to go, there on the frame of the door. And after that there will be shingles to replace, and that beam of winter rot-pocked pine, the old milking stall with its broken floorboard. Even the things that were built to last don’t last. Today there is this hammer, this board, this time. Let’s go.
Note: This published was originally published in the Ferndale Enterprise on Nov. 5 for my monthly Hometown column. You can find information about the Enterprise here.