Maybe I can make it after all

I once read in one of the paddling magazines that if you think you are drowning you need to think, just one more second and then, just one more second until you wet exit or roll up or help arrives. The idea is that, however desperate things get, we can hold on just a little longer.

I thought of this the other day as I was picking up the business my dog had done on someone's lawn. The smell and sight of the warm pile remininded me that this is the last week...and maybe, just maybe, I can get through it.

I speak, of course, of the campaigns going on around local, state and federal elections. It is the annual who can out BS, out spend and down right out lie the other candidate, thusly allowing the informed voter to pick the lesser of two evils.

As I've pointed out before, this is not a political forum, and I will not endorse either party's warm pile but, after the election, I know I will be left to pick it up.

You need to understand that much of the way I conduct my personal life is based on trust and integrity. Trust goes to how I feel about you. Integrety is about how I conduct myself when no one is watching. Into this cohesive world intrudes the politician, someone who makes it a career to "serve" the public while nicely looking after his or her own warm pile. It leaves me frustrated.

I see professional office holders who know only know living off the public largess, and I see ideologs who vote the party line. When asked why they aren't making the changes we elected them to make, they give some convoluted answer like, "I have to vote this way to get reelected so I can change the things in the way I promised." Another warm pile is dumped onto the airways and pages of the newspapers.

So, come not week, I will--as always--show up at the polling place, hold my nose and pick a pile to keep warm until next election.

Paddle safe...
DS