New York Meets North Dakota

Today’s post is more along the lines of “the conversation” — how do we get people of differing views to love each other (like George H. W. Bush and Maureen Dowd!).

But first, I wouldn’t mind being the guy who saved your life, or the life of a loved one, someday, so I offer LifeVac (thanks, Brian!), in which I have no personal interest, except that I just bought more than one of them on Amazon.  (What if three people are choking at the same time?  Or you are fortunate enough to have a second home?  Or a relative who already has a cashmere scarf and probably doesn’t have this?)

My personal dread has always been that, in trying to suck every last bit of avocado from the pit — waste not, want not! — I will one day swallow that slippery pit and it will get stuck in my throat — my goal of immortality not just foiled but mocked by an avocado pit.

Not any more.  I’ll just LifeVac it out and go back to my salad.

Okay.  In case you missed it, here is Jon Meacham’s wonderful eulogy to George H. W. Bush.  Don’t miss it.  Bush was not my favorite president — and he was awful on AIDS, though I think more out of cluelessness than malice — but . . . well, listen to Meacham.

You can stop there.

But I’ve been saving this note from Daisy Prince for several weeks now — she sent it a week before the election — and it speaks to how red America and blue America really could be just America again, if there weren’t so much profit and political gain to be had driving us apart.  (And Russia working to set us against each other and build distrust.)

Anyway, here is her “North Dakota Diary” about her trip from New York to canvass for Heidi Heitkamp.  On the Road for Heidi Heitkamp.

After I read it, I asked, “What did they think of a New Yorker coming to visit?  No resistance to ‘elitists’?  I’ve always assumed it’s way better to save the airfare and organize LOCALS to canvass their neighbors?  How much did ‘New York’ come up?”

Daisy replied: “The North Dakotans were pleased — if puzzled  — as to why I was there.  They are pretty stoic people and I don’t think get shocked easily.  They seemed to understand that it was an important time nationally. New York came up a bit but mostly they were, like many of us, psyched to talk about themselves, North Dakota, and what matters to them.  It was really good fun.  And such a tonic for the soul. I hope Heidi wins [she did not] but more than that, it’s good to know that we can get through this period of vitriol and hate because underneath we are basically good. I saw that firsthand.”