Last week my wife was able to assist some visiting Americans having difficulty conducting business in the local language here in Istanbul. In the subsequent conversation, they brought up the topic of the US presidential election and casting overseas ballots.
For some reason, one of them felt it was not only appropriate, but necessary, to ask my wife who she had voted for. Disapproving of her answer, the woman not only chided my wife for her choice, but insisted that she should attempt to recover her ballot and change it to this woman’s preferred candidate. In the depths of her obtuseness, she was probably completely innocent of how fully ill-mannered was her behavior.
My wife chose to display a restraint that was evidently alien to the persecutor that she had just aided. She told the group that she looked at these elections in a sort of way that parents do when anticipating a child. Many people overtly or secretly entertain a preference, sometimes quite a strong one, for a boy or a girl. But regardless of how that actually turns out when the child is born, both parents typically invest their full affection and hopes in it, wishing only that it have a healthy, meaningful, productive life.
So, my wife said, she hoped all of them would join her in taking that view, tomorrow, of our new president-elect, whichever of these two candidates it turns out to be.
It seemed to make sense to this woman and her friends. How about you?
Tomorrow is Election Day in the United States. We’ll see you back here on Wednesday!
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Today’s tip: Please see Michael Wade‘s excellent and timely essay on expectations for competence and what they suggest for how we organize our organizations – or our society and government.
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