Follow the leader

Has it ever happened to you when you drove in a strange neighborhood, slightly lost, and wished the car in front of you were going to the same place, so you could just followed him? Being a poor navigator, I hate to get lost, so GPS is my best friend, because it helps me get un-lost.

My mom used to tease me that GPS is my blind man's stick. I once drove my mom around Kauai with the help of GPS, and impressively found our way back to the hotel every night.

One Election Day a few years ago, Jack and I left home early and drove separately to the polling place because we were going to drive to work afterwards. As per usual, I followed Jack's car and turned right into the street past the gas station, then turned left, following the grey SUV.  Still following the grey SUV, I turned right into the auto shop, and that's when I realized the car I had been following was someone else. I had no idea when I lost Jack. Exiting the auto shop parking lot, I was on my own.

Fortunately, I could remember to turn right on the next street to find the community center where the polling place was. Jack laughed when he found out what happened to me.

Following the wrong person could have been much worse than what happened to me that day.

Opinions

Like every other election, we heard a lot of opinions the last few months about the candidates and propositions, yadi yada... This year, I am much more at peace with the election than other years, while Jack has been pulling his hair out struggling against opinions people boldly voiced on TV, radio and by signs on the side of the road. Yes on 32, no on 32?

I read the voting material last Sunday, and as soon as I stopped reading the augments for and against, my mind cleared out, and it was so much less struggle to find out what I really wanted.

We live in a democracy, so there are always people for and against anything. So we will have to learn how to be responsible citizens yet keeping ourselves at peace with the reality.

It's difficult, very difficult.

It's election night. I opened up to read news and I feel like I'm going to faint.