The Morning After

Pondering the results of the American Election

 

 

This morning I am perturbed. I am irritated and left wanting. I am like the kid in the back seat of the car whose parents are in the midst of a great ‘day out’ debate and I have absolutely no say. I bite my lips and scrunch my eyebrows as we cruise along, passing nearly every fast food establishment on the strip. Then I spot it…the carnival.  This is how I felt watching the U.S. presidential election.

 

 I could see it coming – it was there. Right there – so close in proximity and I clear my throat to get their attention and position myself awkwardly so they my might glance at me just once in the rear view mirror. The driver looks at me briefly and flashes a smile – then proceeds to drive right by. I plaster my face unto the window absolutely defeated– the sounds, the sights, the spectacle, the celebration – I cannot join in. This is sooo unfair.

 

What I wouldn’t do to be in the U.S. right now.  I’d be in Orlando celebrating with Mel, or crashing at my aunt’s in Delaware, laughing it up with Kamilah in Buffalo. Yet here I am simply watching and hearing ‘it’ happen through a series of pictures on the internet.  It is just NOT the same. After staying up until wee hours of the morning and drinking way too much wine in pre – mid – and post celebration, we awoke exhausted but inspired – only to waltz into our respective places at work and adhere to the unwritten Canadian code where we pretend we haven’t been watching (even though it is the only news story broadcasting in the cafeteria), pretend we aren’t thinking about it, that its’ no big deal, not our business and that we do not care.

 

Well I might be the kid in the back seat of the car heading north – but I’m still looking out the rear window – watching …listening for any sounds, scents or sights that I can arrest to use as the nucleus of my fantasies. Long after the top of the Ferris wheel has disappeared behind the hill nearing home, I want to break free.

 

 

God Bless America, and God bless us all.

 

Denise