In just 5 days, Mom and I will be winging our way to London--a stopover before our Baltic Cruise. Today was spent plowing through (virtual) stacks of email, (actual) stacks of work on the desk and piles of laundry.
I made a list of the outfits I'll be wearing for the various formal, informal and casual nights (3, 2, and 6), then Dan and I went shopping for a few things. Quite a few things later (including a couple of items for Dan) we straggled back into the house. So I'm officially set for the trip and now it's a matter of packing and getting throug the rest of the stacks that await resolution prior to leaving.
The beauty of being slightly under the weather while preparing is that I do take time out. Last night was an example. I settled into the couch and watched the excellent and thought-provoking Recount by HBO. The cast was wonderful, in particular Kevin Spacey as Gore's guy in Florida, Ron Klain. Laura Dern was impeccable as Katherine Harris.
The movie evoked some powerful emotions, reminding me just how close we came to avoiding the Bush-catastrophe of the last seven plus years. By the Dem's count, we were 98 votes shy of Bush when the Supreme Court stopped the recount process. By the Republican's count, it was 154.
One Hundred. Fifty. Four.
Heck, I have more people than that in my rolodex! We were so very close. In fact, if the 20,000 people that Katherine Harris had disenfranchised from voting by requesting a scrub of folks whose names even vaguely resembled felons' names, we probably did win.
Lessons learned from the movie?
1. Sometimes the best man loses.
2. Sometimes he loses because he acts in a more principled manner.
3. Every freaking vote counts.
4. We cannot afford to disenfranchise voters (listening Hillary?).
5. We made it through a constitutional crisis without bloodshed. It was a messy example, but a good one of democracy at work in the most difficult and contentious of circumstances.
The film's well worth viewing, regardless of which side of the aisle you're on--for powerful performances, interesting behind the scenes anecdotes and an engaging script.
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