Once inside, after both my identity and my vote were duly processed, I began a slightly more personal ritual that goes along with my election day experience. One of my precinct judges is an acquaintance I used to see weekly back when I was yet a living pillar in a worshipping congregation.
While this precinct official can still be found in the pews week to week, I can not. So, if things are slow election wise, we step to one side and take a few moments to get caught up.
She spoke of a trip they will take later in the month, and how it is the first time her husband has been out of the country since his High School days. She and I agreed he was past due for a journey.
I've been thinking over that idea, that a person "must" travel, at least occasionally. As is often the case, I am of two minds. While I thoroughly enjoy exploring "other" spaces, I also believe Dorothy and the Wizard had it right all along, though poet Billy Collins phrased it more elegantly...
How much better to command the simple precinct of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
(from "Consolation", via Poemhunter.com)
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