I didn't think I would let myself write here today. Writing can be a means of alleviating anxiety for me and there's a lot of it floating around free right now - mixed with a sparkly fog of hope. It makes for a very skewed perspective.
When Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama were duking it out for the Democratic nomination, the smart, cynical observer in me said the republicans could probably run Kid Rock on their ticket and still win the election. I simply did not believe the American public could overcome their innate - if diminished - sexism and racism to elect a woman or a black man as president.
Now I find myself nervously hoping that all of the polls are true.
The American election is important on a global level because they are the arbiters of pop-culture and where pop-culture goes, humanity follows. Just the appearance of acceptance for a man of Obama's background is enough to trigger a tidal wave of compassion, hope and maybe even idealism in the popular arts and I do believe that tidal wave will spread into every aspect of daily life. There's no question, he is the Kennedy of this era. And because of that, I worry, I wait, I wonder.
random thoughts on the passage through an ordinary life.
About Me
- Stephanie Farrington
- I figure if there's an average person, it's probably me. That is to say, I have lived in a few places, probably about average, I have a post-secondary education and an unfinished MFA - which is probably average for people who pursue and education, I'm hitting middle age, my job has been downsized and resized so many times it's safe to say I've never had any job security. I live an average life on the precarious edge of the middle class. I'm happily married to an American, I hold Canadian citizenship, for now. But I'm so disgusted with just about everything going on in Canada that I may pursue changing my citizenship to match my husband's. I am fiercely loyal to American ideals, in part because they make sense and in part because I am descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The idea of an equitable democracy, a meritocracy - that appeals to me. I write, I read, talk, take pictures and worry - just like everybody else. The hopes I hold most dear are for the health and well being of my immediate family, myself included, and the continuance of my happy life with my wonderful husband. Everything else seems manageable.
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