Opinions
The election is long over, and everyone still has an opinion. (And rightfully so, this is America, after all.) The bad thing about social media is that anyone can basically post whatever they want. And everyone is an expert on everything. And most people give me a headache anyway.
A favorite author of mine posted a whole rant about the end of days, how horrific people are (well, the people who don’t agree with her) and a bunch of other stuff, and all I could think was, “You are an author. You write amazing books. You are not an expert on world events. You are not the judge and jury for people whose views are different than yours are.” I was going to post a comment, but then I started reading the other comments, and for the most part, they were all what I was thinking. They were also very respectful and well written, which was even more impressive.
But I would like to share my favorite post with all of you. I do not know who wrote it, and I hope I don’t offend any of you with my political views.
“It’s so sad to see politics divide and tear people apart. Friendships are being broken. Let me be clear about something: I don’t care whether you are Democrat or Republican — nothing is going to change — I won’t be friends with any of you. I already have two friends and that is enough. How many friends does a person need?” Yup, that pretty much sums it up for me.
Someone posted this on Facebook, and I thought it was both funny and brilliant. Politics are so touchy and they really do end friendships, which is a shame, because there are so many other things to end friendships over.
In any event, as Jews, we believe that everything is in God’s hands, so hopefully, He or She will protect us, and all will be as well as possible.
As for me and politics, I ran for president of student council in eighth grade and I lost. Then I ran for secretary when I was a junior in Stern College for Women and Others and I lost that election, too. Yes, I am a loser, but I made really cool posters with glitter and bubble letters, so there’s that.
And my dad felt bad when I lost for secretary, so he took me to FAO Schwartz and bought me one of those giant stuffed bears, and now, 33 years later, Strudel loves Mr. Bear, so everything happens for a reason.
As for this election, my only comment is that in a country of millions of people, I am not sure how it came down to the two candidates that we had, but this is a humor column, not a political commentary column, so let’s move on.
Last Friday night, Husband #1 and I were playing table topics, again, because dinner ended after eight minutes. This was the question: “If you could pick any era to live in, which would it be?”
We both responded the era that we grew up in — the ’80s. The music was great (was it?), the television shows were great (were they?) and there were no cell phones or social media. You could be gleefully ignorant because there were so few ways to find anything out. Though, through further discussion, we were wondering if it was so great because we were young and thought we were invincible and that everything was perfect.
This feeling was further justified when I spoke to someone who I was very close with in high school. The majority of my memories, and they are very good memories, were with this person. We had such a good time together and did some crazy stuff (all legal, well, mostly legal). She was telling me that she had a conversation with another high school classmate of ours who just had terrible memories.
“But she was so popular,” I said. “Everybody liked her.”
Apparently, she remembered only the bad stuff. Which is ironic, because I usually only remember the bad stuff. Though, for those interested, I have gotten much better at not holding grudges. I just don’t care anymore — life is way too short and filled with too much good to concentrate on the awful people of the world.
The moral of this column? Remember the good stuff and trust that everything will be okay. That’s all I got.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck is excited about all the catalogues that come this time of year. And yes, she keeps them all in the bathroom.
comments