By Mickey Dunaway

Tomorrow is National Election Day, and I trust you voted. If you are anything like me, you may have had a bit of anxiety when you cast your ballot. A few days after I mailed in my ballot, I said to the wife as we were having coffee on a nice October patio day in North Carolina, “Sandy, I think I might have just voted for the wrong person for president.” 

Sandy replied, “Our ballots are just two out of millions. It won’t make any real difference.” 

I agreed because, at 77, I cannot say that any presidential election has made a hill of beans difference in our lives. I may be repelled by politicians’ language or embarrassed by their shenanigans that caused them to resign from office and with others. Yet they continued to be elected, and I expect 2024 will yield the same result.

Regardless of who the media declares the winner in the early hours of Wednesday morning, I will be neither sad nor glad because no matter who I voted for, I will not have felt good about my choice, and that is, sadly, one hell of a note. 

I put my faith in two areas of our national politic that will keep our country afloat in the turbulent waters we all live in these days: The Constitution of the United States and the interpreter of the wisdom contained in that great document, the Supreme Court of the United States. Regardless of who is elected and the yahoos of both parties, the Constitution and the Supreme Court will keep us afloat amid the lies, the half-truths, and the damn lies. 

If it takes weeks or months to sort through the results of tomorrow’s election, the sun will come up each of those days, and I will continue to live as I have for 77 years thanks to the Constitution, the Supreme Court, my wonderful wife, and family.

First thing—before you turn on the tube—on November 6, 2024, let the Almighty know how glad you are to be alive. Then check the results and spend much of the day simply rerunning storied days of your life to this point. You will find humor, inspiration, beliefs, the philosophical, and the sad. Likely, you have not retold them in a long time. I promise you will find relief if you let them out! 

Finally, do not celebrate excessively nor grieve for more than a few minutes. Instead, get back to work, ensuring that your small piece of our remarkable country is ready to move forward another day for your family. On balance, that is all that you will ever really control. If you successfully navigate life with your family, the country going forward from the Election of 2024 will affect you very little regardless of your vote. At least that has been my experience. 

My good and bad days are under my control (with input from the wife), not the government in Washington or my state. 

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“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan