The Freedom to Elect- The Freedom to Cry

By G. E. Shuman

Well, after about two years of campaigning, reporting, sniping, chiding, protesting, polling, and many other gerunds, our country’s presidential election is finally over.  The people have spoken, as they say, and we have a new president-elect.  In all earnest, I do wish he and his  team well.
        I don’t use this column to push any political agenda, (not that people want to hear my opinion anyway,) and, although I do have my own thoughts on little issues like the future direction of our nation, I don’t spend much time trying to persuade others to think like I do on such things. Maybe that’s not the attitude I should take, but it is the one I do take. The truth is, I believe that there was a reason for the invention of voting ‘booths’.  Those booths exist to make making our choices, and filling in those little ovals beside all of those names on the ballot, private.  It’s really none of anyone else’s business who you voted for. I hope, if an exit polling person asked you that question, that you lied to them. To me, this is the only situation of life where lying is good. If the information they cull from that question turns out to be wrong, maybe they’ll stop asking. It’s not like knowing how voting is going will change the end result anyway, or, at least, it shouldn’t.
        Our two main political parties have always been opposed, because if they weren’t, there would only be one real party, and we would be Russia. What fun would that be?  In some ways the national political game in our country seems to be very much like a sport, and one that every adult citizen here has a chance to participate in. I think it would be healthy for our nation if more of us got off the bench and into the game, but no one should tell any of us what team to be on.
        I am not a conspiracy theorist, and do not believe in some shadow government being behind the scenes, pulling the strings of the democrats or the republicans. For Pete’s sake, the elected people in Washington D.C. haven’t been able to get along long enough to pass any meaningful laws that will ‘stick’, for a very long time. If some shadowy types are trying to take over, they certainly are taking their sweet time doing it.
        Also, I don’t believe that Hillary Clinton is the devil, or that she will likely ever go to jail. I also don’t believe that Donald Trump is the devil, or that he will ever try to send her to jail. Both of those people, for better or for worse, for straighter or

for ‘crookeder’, are just people. I do hope that our President-elect will do all that he can to unite our people, and to get our economy perking again.
        A few days ago, I read an article about a new law in the country of China.  The law, somehow, forbids the Chinese people from calling the leader of North Korea, Mr. Kim Jong Un, fat. Seriously. If you haven’t heard about this, Google it. Even though calling someone a derogatory name does not show good manners, in China it is against the law, at least if you are referring to Mr. Kim.  The fact that he really IS fat is irrelevant. (In some parts of the world speaking the truth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, if you want to avoid going to jail.)
        Our country is much more tolerant than that. Here you can get college credit for protesting the results of an election, you can be excused from exams if you are just too torn up by the thought of the coming presidency, and on some campuses, you can even enter crying rooms and play with Playdoh to help you cope with it all. (Oh, dear dear).
        Personally, I’m very thankful for our system of electing our leaders, that we still have the freedom to do so, and that we always have a relatively smooth transition of power in our country. Also, here, although it may be rude to use less than complementary nicknames for people, you probably won’t go to jail if you call me fat. Still, I may be forced to find a crying room and some Playdoh, if you do.

Thoughts of November

By G. E. Shuman

                Today I’d like to think about what I think, about the month of November. To me, November is a sort of unexciting month, in many ways. Here in the North it is gray, most days, and that grayness is amplified by the fact that the leaves are off the trees, and all that gray bark on all those naked trees is showing through, all across our state.  This saddens me a bit, because I love both the green leaves of summer, and the red and golden ones of fall. At my house those fall leaves have fallen, too, and, when you read this column, I have either spent a day raking them up, or need to do so. My back is either killing me, or it soon will be. Such is life in Vermont.

                This increasingly chilly month also makes me think of many good things. As the weather turns colder, there is some sense of, and even some actions, involving a subtle ‘tucking in’ that occurs here, almost ritualistically, at this season. Windows are sealed, air conditioners are stowed away, and wood is stacked and prepared for the coming winter. Other fall rituals also take place up here. Local hunters hone their skills by shooting fake deer and beer cans in the back yard, but some will still blame the sight on their rifle when that big buck gets away. People line up at the tire stores to have their ‘snows’ put on, and discuss how much snow we’re ‘supposed’ to get this year.

The warmth of ‘indoors’ can be a very good, and satisfying thing right now.  I think of the scents of the wood fires that heat so many homes here, and of a closeness that is, somehow, borne of, sort of, ‘having to be closer’, within our homes, with our families. In November, each year, we seem to learn all over again how to stay in more, out of the cold. Out come the sweaters and quilts and comforters, to bring comfort when cold winds howl outside our windows.

The scent of those wood fires can be wonderful, this time of year, and, also the scents of kitchens, as more things are cooked there, now, as we northerners abandon the backyard grills of summer. This is the month of the ‘feast of all feasts’ for most families, and of my very favorite holiday, Thanksgiving Day. On that day, a celebration with family, including a table decorated with reminders of fall, usually features the best scents of all, including the unmistakable aroma emanating from the kitchen, of a huge, slowly roasting turkey. Yum!

I suggest that you, just for fun, when that holiday comes, ask the youngest of your group what the word Thanksgiving means. Some might actually say ‘turkey’, as an almost interchangeable ‘T’ word. You then might discuss something we old English teachers would tell them, that Thanksgiving is a compound word made up of the words thanks, and giving. Then have those little ones tell you what each of those words means.

Thanksgiving: a day of giving thanks, and of being truly thankful for all that we have been given. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,” James 1:17, Holy Bible. To me, those gifts are my family, my friends, my home, my career, and my free country. For such things, and others you may name, let us be truly thankful.  The best bumper sticker I ever saw, proclaimed: “Gratitude is the best therapy.”  Being grateful, being thankful, in the cold and often gray month of November, can really bring out the sunshine!