Story:
At around 10 o'clock this morning, Roy abruptly barfed all over both of us and half the bus.
But the day got better after that.
Help from strangers came immediately: a dude on the bus passed me a plastic bag (to stow spew-soaked sundries); the driver told me don't worry about the mess; a mom pushing a stroller stopped to offer us a stack of baby wipes; a passerby handed over an unopened bottle of water.
Roy took the entire thing in stride (which made it way easier for me to play/stay cool as well). “It's not as yucky as poo-poo,” he explained.
As it happens, we landed across the street from Please Mum: where we once bought the pants now soaked in toddler-vomit. The clerk invited us to use their staff washroom to get cleaned up; i got Roy a brand new / identical pair of pants. The shop didn't have any socks, however, Roy was unconcerned, having rediscovered the wire/wood-bead labyrinth toy facing the register.
So we made our exit, and followed her directions to a nearby shoe store. Then another. Then to the pharmacy. It turns out that toddler size 8 socks are not that easy to come by. Therefore i kept on carrying my barefooted son while pushing the smelly, barf-soiled stroller.
I figured we might as well start making our way back home as we were. But just as i was starting on the mental math concerning alternate routes, i remembered: the costume store!
Thus the morning went from nasty barf disaster to epic imaginary adventure! In addition to his very classy pair of casual black socks, Roy settled on a triceratops costume and a shiny shield. (Runner up options were dino-robot and astro-dino combos.) Instead of feeling bummed about thesis work (or gym workout) that would not get done today, i experienced serendipitous joy and a surge of gratitude.
And that was all before lunch.
This afternoon i got to go for a very vacation-y walk along the seawall, wearing Shea in the baby-carrier. She napped and bobbed along as i listened to a radical theology podcast.
And so i just think: wow... fucking awesome.
Context:
The happiness these simple experiences brought me today has been highlighted by the gloomy background: Yesterday's election sure sucked.
But... maybe not totally. After all, non-proportional electoral results always suck, so that is to be expected. Certainly this one must have stung for anyone who had their heart set on an NDP victory, or even just a better distribution of legislative power — and our hearts had good reasons to be set on both.
If we can momentarily put aside our investment in a specific outcome at the polls and become rather more concerned with the longer-term forecast — for electoral reform and democratic revitalization in general — there are some (okay, two) obvious silver linings to this otherwise very dismal renewal of an unrepresentative provincial Liberal oligarchy: Eby and Weaver!
The Liberals will want to milk their victory for all it's worth — but the very question of its worth can be rendered nicely uncertain, since the captain of their winning team lost her own home game. And that's without mentioning the specific virtues that David Eby himself will bring to the Legislative Assembly (which are many). Congratulations, Mr. Eby.
Better still (in this long-view) is the fact that, as of last night, it can no longer be smugly said that Green votes are “wasted.” That was always offensive majoritarian garbage; now it’s also demonstrably false. Congratulations, Andrew Weaver.
All provincial parties will have to recalculate their chances in future elections. The NDP, for their part (and i think this is a good thing), will have to decide what kind of relationship it really wants to have with the third-place party. My hope, once again, is that a co-operative relationship can be established.
There has never been any excuse for political parties that do not concern themselves with eliminating the evils of party politics. The consequences become clearer with every iteration of political decay. (How low does voter turnout have to get? How wildly unrepresentative do the results have to become?) I don't really care what we call it. "Coalition" or "co-operation" or whatever. But here's what i think needs to happen: The BC-NDP and the BC Green Party ought to co-ordinate, and yes in some cases that means not run candidates against one another, in order to JOINTLY END THE FIRST-PAST-THE-POST SYSTEM.
This is what the federal opposition parties need to do as well. It is what Joyce Murray was calling on Liberals to do; Trudeau's credibility will depend on how he handles this question of priorities. (So far, he's a charming distraction.) Maybe David Eby, will see fit to use the well-earned prestige of his defeat of the Premier to direct his NDP colleagues towards a collaborative strategy for electoral reform; and maybe Andrew Weaver will use his voice to help keep this on the agenda in Victoria — as Elizabeth May has done in Ottawa.
The Liberals are now (officially) working to bring us more of what we've seen these past 12 years. I can hardly stand to look at the dystopian neoliberal horizon towards which they are leading us. The likelihood that they will soon resume their devastating attacks on education is particularly disturbing to contemplate. So instead i choose to focus on a future that lies further beyond that horizon, by planting some seeds for it here and now.
Moral:
Politics is pretty yucky stuff, but it happens. It could be worse.
If we need good news on days like today, then let’s make some. (Or at least let’s make believe.)
