My cat, Roscoe, will wait quietly at the door for the longest time. He knows I will eventually notice him and let him out (if he’s inside) or in (if he’s outside.) He doesn’t have to say anything. He just has to stare at the door knob.
What does he think about, while he’s waiting? Is he sending out telepathic energy, trying to mentally cause someone — anyone? — to get the message and turn the door knob? I wouldn’t put it past him.
The subject of today’s essay, as you might guess, is ‘waiting’… that thing we do… hoping that something we want to see happen will actually come about…
…while the world continues turning. Babies are born, old people die, prices continue to rise, the dishes stack up, politicians make promises, the apples ripen on the tree.
We probably didn’t notice the world turning, however, because we were too busy waiting for something to happen. Staring at the door knob.
Speaking of politicians, a lot of us were waiting for Joe Biden to drop out of the race. We weren’t terribly fond of either of the Presidential candidates, but we at least want to see a fair fight, and the contest between Trump and Biden had been looking less and less fair with each passing day.
Now that we have Kamala Harris officially campaigning for the Democratic Party nomination, we don’t have to wait any longer.
Joe gave a decent abdication speech, I thought. Yes, he made us wait, but maybe the wait was worth it. I understand that, when you’re President, you want to finish the job you started, and sometimes that takes a second term. But in the end, Joe could see the writing on the wall.
When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country, is larger than any one of us, and those of us who cherish that cause cherish it so much, a cause of American democracy itself must unite to protect it…
.. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life, but there’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now.
I have to agree, that the truth is larger than any one of us, regardless of how large we might be. I would even suggest that the truth is larger than the entire federal government, especially Congress and the Supreme Court.
So in spite of Joe’s apparent intention of always telling us the truth (the success of which you can check at Politi-Fact) he finally confessed that it’s time for a younger generation to take the reins.
So that part of the waiting is over. Joe opened the door, and who should enter but Vice President Kamala Harris, who, we must assume, had been quietly staring at the door knob.
Some of us have been waiting for decades now, for a woman to be elected President. (But not Hillary, thank you.) It’s not that we think women naturally make better Presidents than men, but more because women have had the right to vote since 1920 and still haven’t managed to get a woman elected. That’s a long time to wait. You’d think, after 104 years, we could throw them a bone.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.