Wow, just five days left. Under a week to go. Count down the days on just one hand. Not long to go until...
... until we can all breathe again, clear our heads, have a good night's sleep, move on with our lives and look to the future.
This presidential election campaign has been grueling, not just for the candidates criss-crossing battleground states from rally to rally, fundraiser to debate. It's been tiring for all of us, the electorate, the viewing audience. Nearly two years of campaigning. Non-stop news stories, talking head pundits, political advisers turned news analysts, man-on-the-street sound bites, angry mob interjections, and carefully nuanced biased video biographies of the candidates. Daily polls, and polls of polls, electoral college maps, swing states and county by county splotches of red and blue from 2004.
Taken all together, digested all at once, it's stressful, sometimes gut-wrenching. The anxiety is reaching a high boil. It could boil over with the intensity promised by the 24 hour news channels.
And yet, it's fascinating.
It's gripping, thrilling, inspiring. Already declared historic, before we've even reached the finish line.
The prospect of a true pivotal point in the story of our nation. A moment of truth. A tipping point. An inflection point to reveal a new era. Hope and optimism for something different, a new tone, a new attitude.
Like listening to the overture before the opera's first act. We hear the themes, we can taste what is to come, before actually seeing, living, and experiencing the actual show.
There are very real, important things happening for both myself and my wife. Things that will need attention and understanding. Some study, some preparation, some planning.
I have decided to wait for the election to pass, or perhaps more accurately, to let the 100 year flood of news hype and media attention to drain away with the election, so I can once again breathe, clear my head, and finally focus on important matters at home.