Camping Trip: Part 6.5: I Was Willing, But Not Called

[This was to be the last post in the series and the series was to end on election day. Alas, I spent too much time pondering the spiritual and gallivanting in the shoal waters of Luggable Loos and other camping gear. At the risk of scrambled chronology, I post these thoughts today; election day. The text goes live via database scheduling, I’m not even sure I’ll be on-line. The rest of the story will continue tomorrow.]

A few days after my return from camping I got an e-mail. Apparently, the urban county that supposedly needs election judges… doesn’t. I’d clearly indicated I was “willing to travel” on their form but they didn’t care. My volunteer application had been routed from the urban zone where staffing is inadequate (and shenanigans might or might not happen) to my rural county which is duller than dirt but has no drama. My rural area dutifully reported to me (as it has before) “we don’t need anyone here”.

They did not call. I am not going.

I’m not upset about it. First of all, the situation spares me a decision I didn’t quite know how to handle. It also spares me several hundred dollars in expenses; not to mention a long and unwelcome trip. Finally, I feel like I did what I was meant to do.

I felt obligated to offer help, which I did. I never felt obligated to kick down the door and force myself on a system that doesn’t want or need it.

I was prepared to do a task. That is all. That doesn’t mean I was looking forward to it. It’s better to do something than bitch about the world. I can truthfully say I wasn’t inert in the face of challenge. It’s the second time in a year that I was ready to go to the mat. It’s the second time I was spared an unpleasant situation. It’s the second time I’m very grateful.

I’ll probably spend most of election day in the forest; as the universe has decreed I should.

I type this well before the actual day of the vote. This text will be stored in the great database in the sky; from which the data will auto-post as scheduled. The post will happen regardless of events. The post will happen if the elections are squeaky clean diamonds of sanity that secure “the consent of the governed”. The post will happen even if everything gets shutdown at midnight and trucks full of ballots arrive at key locations where the windows are blacked out in the complete anthesis of transparency. Mobs in the streets or happy citizens waving little flag stickers… who knows which… or both.

As for myself, I don’t even know if I’ll be on the grid the day the election plays out. I don’t even know if there will be an election day or a month of “lawfare” leading to mushy compromises.

I’m not sure it will do me any good to watch it in real time. I’m not sure it’ll do anyone good. The last time I went to bed in one universe where things were seemingly ordered and there were a few weird hiccups in a few key places. I woke up in another universe where everything had changed. Concertina wire was part of elections and soon we had political prisoners doing hard time for “parading”.

I’ll always felt split by that. The dichotomy is almost visceral. It’s like the innocent act of sleep put me in a parallel universe; we’re here now and there’s no way back.

I don’t know what will happen this election. Neither do you. I pray that it is drama free. I still don’t quite know what to think of the last election. For once I’m not alone. Nobody is really happy with it, on either side. All evidence indicates our society neither confident about the future nor successfully digesting past events.

The guy who showed up at my campsite seemed to think it wasn’t a big deal. It will be as it will. Politics distracts from reality; it divides us from the spiritual. Also, it’s not inconceivable that clean behavior could restore faith in our institutions (though it’s asking too much to heal our society in one fell swoop). I hope it makes things better. And if it doesn’t, that too is how it should be.

Take care everyone.

A.C.