Shortly after eight o’clock this morning we drove to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Last week Kim, the property manager where we live, had requested residents to remove their vehicles from the garage so that Jeff, the custodian, could clean the floor. We decided to employ the occasion to go for breakfast at Katarina’s Coffee Shop in Prescott on the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The moment we walked through the door of the coffee shop I uttered to myself, “Now that’s dangerous!” I was eyeing the counter filled with sweets. The one that caught my attention in particular was the salted caramel. Nonetheless I remarkably constrained myself and settled instead for an à la carte Dr. Atkins style breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs and cheese with a compensating ornamentation of cherry tomatoes. And of course a quadruple espresso. In all it was superb! The Low Carb diet always succeeds to extinguish my competitive affection for sugar – but without the penalizing consequences of weight gain and guilt.
But let’s be clear. The overriding absorption today is the US presidential election. Today is Tuesday, November 5, 2024, a day which has been heralded for months by pundits and amateurs alike as a landmark day in American history. And I for one am inclined to agree.
Never in the biography of my life have I endured (as I have for the past 8 years) a more prolonged confusion about the object and evolution of American culture. Whatever is the result today will be a defining moment; either because (as I predict will be the case) Harris surpasses Trump astronomically (and Americans proceed to fulfill the hopeful and dignified dream of which they so often speak); or, because it is otherwise (and American global passage is seriously injured); or, because neither transpires (an ambivalent and lingering disfunction). In short the outcome, whatever it may be, is certain in my mind to complete a characterization of Americans I never before imagined possible.
This is not to suggest the American past has been perfect; rather that its prospects have always been considered as evolutionary and improving. Colonialism for example is a relic which contaminates British, Canadian and American past. Yet with the predominance of demographic change I had hoped that the former inhibitions would be incrementally released. These sometimes singular Western society distortions are however also part of global change arising from the increased and more proximate acquaintances worldwide. And if the ambition is not merely to develop the most catastrophic bomb, we’ve no option but to learn to deal with one another.
It is my privilege as an old man to sit unrestrained at my desk overlooking the dormant farmlands and winding river. The prospect of the future for me is, though not meaningless, predominantly irrelevant. The world will outlive me. I believe however I would be less confused and anxious if I were to witness the embrace of something better than name calling and discredit of one’s brethren, both at home and abroad.