A Bit of Paper
It floated down. A plain white paper. Virginia looked up from where she was sitting in the sun, her dark coffee iced and creamy. The sun was too bright to see where the paper may have come from. What window in the tall silver and copper high rise had been opened to send the paper on it’s floating descent? And why? It was certainly a lazy, warm day that she should even give a thought to this bit of flotsam. It may just have blown in the eddies of the city canyons with no purpose at all. She felt it was rather like herself on a day like today. No purpose, just floating and enjoying the ride. Suddenly an updraft caught the piece of paper sending it spinning it in an opposite direction, suspending it midair while the currents held sway. Virginia had felt her own such updrafts in earlier times. Not anchored in the world, she had twisted and changed with any prevailing winds. Finally tired of changing because of somone or something else, Virginia’s life slowed, but never stagnated. She had finally learned to ride the winds of sudden change, or to avoid windy corners and canyons.
One such windy noisy place was the upcoming election. Politicians strutting their stuff, otherwise solemn faces painted with smiles, words of promise and kindness filling airwaves and town halls. Virginia had listened to some of the rhetoric without much belief in the truth of it all. Without a sound, the wayward paper settled on the warm stone surface of the cafe table. One word was scrawled in black ink across it’s surface: VOTE. Smiling, Virginia stood up, paid her check and continued on her way to the polling station ~ Virginia’s original destination.
“Every election is determined by the people who show up.”
~ Larry J. Sabato, Pendulum Swing
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