An elderly gentleman asked me ...

"What are we going to do?" 

"About what?"

"About this election." 

Seventy-three years old, to be exact. Look at me. Seniors are now seeking my unique insight. That's a first. He went on to tell me that everybody that he encountered in Canada, on a recent trip there, asked him that one question right off. Straightway and with clear urgency. What are Americans going to do? He said every last person that he met was really very deeply concerned about our election come down to two seriously flawed candidates.

Pffft. "Aren't they always? Do you show a fraction of interest in Canadian politics as they presume to show in ours? They're obsessed with our politics. They all are. British, and Scottish and Irish and Australians are too. And every last one of them that I encounter online fancies themselves expert in American society and American politics. All it takes is one a single one-week holiday in the U.S. and boom instant expert on all things America. Even as you and I still struggle to figure it out."

He responded,

"Well, Canadians do have a direct interest.  What happens here does have direct impact. Many I met have dual citizenship"

"My dad had dual citizenship."

"I didn't know that." 

"Then they as citizens they can come down here and vote for Hillary Clinton. Their impulse is undoubtedly liberal. They ALL are. And another thing, I never did hear my dad ever mention a single thing about Canadian politics. Not once. But Canadians have always had a bug up their butts about American activities. I noticed that immediately when we went there. At very first contact, exchanging money at the train station. The next morning at breakfast, the guy at a nearby table overhearing our conversation and intruding aggressively and accusingly and looking to argue and all perfectly non sequitur. You telling me to not engage the argument, not give a defense, not give them what they demanded from me. And all the anti-American political graffiti marked up all over the place. I found them exceedingly busybody nosey and intrusive people. I was trying to have a good time, not defend every American policy. And their self image is that they're such lovely gentle mind their own business people.

But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to vote for my candidate of choice and leave it at that. Let other people get all bent out of shape. That twisted energy is theirs not mine. I simply do not have enough time in this world left to me for that form of horseshit. Let them duke it out.  It's not my argument. We'll be fine."

The thing was, one of his friends told him that all I ever talk about is politics.

"Not so. We do talk about politics but we talk about other things a lot more. But. He kept sending me silly crap that he thinks I'll find interesting but it's all so low-level and basic that I asked him to stop it. His emails are all resends from some silly place. Not things from his own mind. I don't know where he gets that crap and it makes clear that he doesn't understand at all where I'm at. He doesn't comprehend what I'm saying. I've responded at length and in depth to his absurd rerouted crap. And his responses to me are at Facebook level, at Twitter level, of discourse. My views are lost on him so it's not worth the effort nor aggravation when there's so much fun we can have instead. So at this point I keep it all very brief."

And that guy's even older! Nah. There's not enough time left us to get bent out of shape over political parties and politics. You other guys will have to duke it all out. Smash each other's faces in, work it all out of your systems. As for Canadians drilling us on our holidays, they've got their own problems to sort.