Someday Will Be Our Time

He’s never at a loss for words, for a smart remark or for an executive decision. But, as we talked about the election, Dan got sheepish.
He said, embarrassed, “I was on my way to the polls, and – I still didn’t have any idea who I wanted. So, I got there, and I looked at the ballot, and I had no idea.”
Jim said, “Well, you’re voting for whoever you think can beat McCain.”
“I know, but I still didn’t know. And when I left there, I was, like, did I make the right choice?”
I had never seen him like that, not even in high school. We’re 40 now, and he’s an executive with one recycling company, and an owner of another.
I just thought he was making a big deal about nothing. You vote for who you want and let it go.
But, deep down, I think he was feeling scared because, maybe for the first time, he had realized an inability to effect the world.

* * *

I was watching the outcomes of the Ohio primary that night. It generally stayed at 60% Clinton , 38% Obama. Dan had voted for Obama.

* * *

Who knows how elections are decided (for the last Presidential election, it seemed like some kind of teeter-totter of fate), how world events develop, or explode into war, fall apart, lead to poverty, etc.
Usually, we apply very rational systems of thought to try to understand how major events occur.
But when I child’s dog is hit by a car, he is looking for deeper answers. And the answer his mother gives him to “Why?” is “Maybe it was his time.”
Could this be how everything happens?
How could we allow George Bush to invade Iraq ? So many of us didn’t want it (and so many of us blame ourselves – somehow we didn’t try hard enough). The world, at large, didn’t want it. Yet it seemed inevitable.
Could we really have stopped it? Could Dan have won Ohio for Barack Obama? Could Obama have? His campaign workers?
Why have so many innocent Iraqis died?
“Maybe it was just their time.”

* * *

When will equity exist in the world for all of its inhabitants? When will violence end, when will hunger end, when will discrimination end?
Maybe, someday, it will be their time.
If enough people want it, if enough people have worked for it, maybe change will be some mysterious cumulative effect.
Maybe it is a matter of the will of the heart, pushing for these things, until critical mass is achieved.