Most of Us

I dropped off brownies to my nursery this morning.  The owner was there to greet me.  She and her husband, and now her daughter and son-in-law, have been my friends and GRIN supporters since before there was GRIN.  They caution me if the plant I'm admiring will require more care than I'm willing to provide.  They do the heavy lifting and I do the pretty planting.  

Our politics could not be more different.  Staunch conservatives, small business owners, and devoutly religious - just think of the opposites and there I'll be.  Abortion has been the lightning rod for our (friendly and respectful) disagreements over the years, until FFOTUS came to town.  They were fans.

They weren't thrilled with his verbiage but were willing to overlook it because he was espousing the up by your bootstraps mentality that lay behind their growing business.  Things didn't go quite as well as they hoped, but Pandemica was nothing but great for their business.  We could be outside, distanced, and enjoy socializing and chatting while shopping.  They did well enough to buy fancy new shelving for the $4.99 starter plants that live outdoors.

Then there was Biden and politics rarely came up; that made me happy.  

Now there is FFOTUS again and the cracks in their foundational beliefs are showing.  Today was a good example.  I posited that even she would agree that if a Chief Executive fell asleep at a televised meeting that he is chairing, firing that person would be the logical next step.  Her lowered eyes and sickly smile said it all.

But then we moved on as she talked about an upper age limit to complement the lower age limit for the Presidency.  And how about the Congresspeople who are in nursing homes (what she heard on her news) or just plain mentally unavailable (my Eleanor Holmes Norton and Diane Feinstein contributions)? 

At the same time, with the same smiling vehemence, we looked at one another and said throw them all out and let's start over.

Then she added this: We're neither of us at the ultra-crazy end of the spectrum, and we aren't that far apart.  We went on to agree that in addition to an awake President, we knew that children should not go hungry and that we'll be paying for everyone's healthcare anyway so why not give them insurance so they have a stake in the game and a chance to stay healthy?  

People shouldn't come in illegally (I have dead relatives who would have liked to swim across the ocean before the Nazi's wiped them out) but the border here was so porous for so long that residency and respectable behavior ought to be enough to validate someone's right to be here.  And don't get us started on the DACA kids; a child is not responsible for his parents' decision to move him without papers.  

Most of us believe the same things, it's just......

That's where we ended.  Another customer came in and commerce triumphed over conversation.  But I left feeling pretty good about America.  Like Mark Kelly said,  It will take time, but I believe we can get it back