Counting down the days

I bet nearly everyone who reads this column will remember “counting down the days” to a special event. We can probably trace those “countdowns’’ back to our childhood when we counted down the days to Christmas, for the last day of school, for our birthdays.  Keeping track of special events made growing up fun and adventurous.

And counting down the days to Christmas was always special, whether you had an Advent calendar, or put a new decoration on the tree every day. It was tradition.

But somehow, counting down the days of the 2024 election is not fun, or unique. I can’t see lining up another elephant (or donkey) in the picture window with great ceremony every day. Especially when they started the count at 200 and something. If you come to visit me, don’t expect to see an election tree sitting in the middle of the dining room table.

Just let the day come — the faster, the better.

I’m not implying that our choice in the ballot box is not important. 

For people of voting age, it is especially important this year. But are you, like me, tired of the vile attacks, the name-calling, the constant blame game, just the terrible vitriol spewing out of the majority of networks?

Thank goodness for college and professional football games back on the big screen. For baseball. Thank goodness for the good news we sometimes are blessed with.

I listen to both sides of the story, with an open mind — even a conservative can have an open mind, believe it or not.

So, I refuse to “count down the days” until the election.  I’ll add on the days to November and Thanksgving and the family birthdays and “count down the days” until Thanksgiving, then the days until Christmas, and the days to the five family birthdays we have in December. I’ll do so knowing, by then, who our president will be for the next four years.

And, donkey or elephant, our country will survive. We just need to stop counting the days and start believing in the goodness of this country, and its people again.

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