The Vice-Presidential debate is on now, and I am lying on the kitchen sofa writing to you. I can’t bear it, I can’t take it. Finally, in the middle of last night, as I was fretting about this Libya thing, the American ambassador who was killed and whose fault was it – I made a decision: I have to stop caring so much about what goes on down there, or I’ll go mad. Take ten giant steps back. Yes, I think the fate of the planet hangs in the balance; that if those intolerant, smug, unbelievably narrow-minded, lying cretins win, we are all in big big trouble.
But there’s nothing I can do about it, and all my fretting just makes me crazier than I already am. So my resolution is to remain calm. And pray. After my students left just now, I did turn on and take a tiny peek, saw the two combatants, heard a sentence from Paul Ryan blaming Obama for something, and turned the TV off. Nope. Not for this sickie.
Managed to hold my Thursday home class tonight, though I was pretty croaky – but these writers are like family, it’s always so good to see them and they’re pretty forgiving. I’d spent the afternoon falling in and out of sleep in the kitchen, while my sick son fell in and out of sleep in the living room. He came over this morning; I’d asked him to please come and buy me some soup at Daniel. Instead, he began chopping onions and garlic, and he made, over several hours, the most delicious French onion soup I’ve ever tasted. If anything heals us both, it’s that soup.
“I read somewhere that what is most wonderful about cooking is that it’s done out of love,” I said to him, as we ate. “Cooking is love. I am eating love.”
He didn’t say anything because he’s a guy. But I think he liked that. And then we both went to sleep.
I might just take a tiny peek at Twitter.
Ten minutes later: Okay. It sounds like it’s going well for Biden. GO JOE! No, Beth, you do not care about those people any more. Go to bed.
GO JOE!
2 Responses to “all you need is soup”
Keep caring about what goes on in politics, please – at home and abroad. It shows that you’re interested in the world around you. The general apathy of Canadians towards these two subjects (politics and the world at large) is disheartening. Politics has a huge impact on everyone’s lives. It’s nice to read your opinions – the view of an engaged and impassioned observer/chronicler.
Juliet, I have no choice, of course I will continue to care, but sometimes I have to try to pull back when it gets too painful. We survived George W. Bush there and Mike Harris (barely) here. This feels different – that these Republican morons have the potential, with what's gong on now in Iran and other volatile states, to blow up the planet. But there's a saying: STRESS COMES WHEN YOU DENY WHAT IS. What is – is that even if they win, we will just go on trying to live a good life. Caring too much just hurts.