Keeping Going

Here is a photo of a coral snake I found in my studio a few days ago as he (she?) slithered across my feet while I was checking e-mail and blogs about Sarah Palin. I shooed it outside where it disappeared under a flagstone. I am loving these natural happenings I see every day. They keep me sane in a time when I think I could go beserk!
My neighborhood out here in the boondocks has sprouted many McCain/Palin yard signs. Every day there are more of them. I had downloaded a program of registered voters in my neighborhood and I meant to stride right out and talk to them about their voting choices. I stopped by the Obama office in town to pick up a few yard signs of my own but they had none left, so I departed with a stack of fairly meaningless fliers with a cute photo of Obama and one of his kids.
I am absolutely terrified of these people I should speak with! So far, in the twenty years we have been coming here, and where we now live full time, we have only spoken about farm things: rainfall, the price of fertilizer, when hog hunting season begins, our gardens, what to do about cows with swollen bags, tractor issues, and such like.
So, when I see our farm manager drive up in his truck to get cow feed from the barn, I dash out of my studio, give him a hug and ask."Are you mad at me?" We always say this to each other when we haven't had a conversation for a time. A few days ago I left a bunch of butterfly plants in his garage and he tells me that he's planted them, thank you very much. We are always leaving things - fresh peanuts, zipper peas, baby squash, newly caught and cleaned fish, tomato seedlings- for each other. I love this funny grizzled old guy and I would trust my life to him. I love my other neighbors too. They have been there with chainsaws to cut up fallen trees after storms. They fix our broken motors, clean our house, pass along used clothing for our grandchildren. They fish in our pond and help extinguish that pesky invasive weed, soda apples. They pick our blackberries and in holiday season we exchange cookies and savories.
I am beginning to get it. My experience, education and sophistication puts me on the moon by comparison. My rural neighbors have closed minds, they only watch Fox news, they are not at all interested in or want to understand the issues. We are the only family here that gets the NYT.(not to mention the Wall St. Journal). Their lives are pretty much going along O.K. I am pretty sure that race is a key issue, but they assure me it is not. "I just like the way McCain talks." I press this lovely guy too much. He says that Obama wants to raise taxes but McCain does not. I think about how to address this and I patiently explain. It's no use, he's decided, and so are the others, they are an invincible tribe. We differ.
This does not seem to be a "one issue" campaign. These neighbors of mine, blue collar workers, do not seem to be talking about guns, abortion, gay marriage, god, or suspicion of science. Yes, they want cheap gas for their pick-up trucks, but they do seem to respect environmental issues. They haven't a clue about economic issues. They do know about greed.
I think I will go out on Thursday to sign up Hispanic voters.
It's a full moon, so bright outside, and I can see bats flitting around. I can hear that breathy thwack of deer voices. The stick bugs are copulating on the screens and the love bugs have arrived. The golden orb weavers are huge and just about ready to construct their egg cases to be ready for spring.
I am cleaning my studio in preparation for a new project - painting the top of a new chest Andy made of lovely ancient wood that had been immersed in water for decades. I am still feeling so accomplished at having finished my book this summer. Stay tuned, friends.
Next week we are hosting a group of environmentalists/scientists for a couple of days of talking about climate change. We will take them on a long walk in our forests and I hope we'll see the wonderful fall wild flowers and maybe even some greenfly orchids.
Life is great and I'm working on being more mellow about this upcoming election.