Doing Something New For A Change

This column originally appeared on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008

In 1972, Robert Redford starred in a film called “The Candidate,” in which he was cast as idealistic lawyer Bill McKay, who fights for the little man.

A man of integrity and charisma, McKay runs for high public office against an apparently overpowering opponent, but does it on his own terms, his way. Incredibly, he wins -- just like a certain someone you might have read about recently.

Anyone who knows movies knows the famous last line of the film, in which Redford, huddled with his advisors just moments after he has been crowned the winner, looks at them and says, “What do we do now?”

With Barack Obama’s historic, perhaps unlikely, surely enthralling victory in the presidential race on Tuesday, there are a lot of people repeating that line over and over. But it’s not Obama that I’m worried about – he’s got plenty of people on hand to answer the question for him, if he asks it. The people on my mind are, frankly, us. Or as Barack would put it, you.

On Tuesday I stood in line waiting to vote with Constant Reader Linda From West Chester, who poured out her soul to me as we inched closer to the ballot booths. The deadline was coming, the election would soon be over, and she was going to have to find something else to occupy her time come Wednesday morning.

For more than two years, she’d been glued to the tube after dinner, wrapped up in the news, eyeballing every hidden nuance in the election that glimmered on the screen. She watched O’Reilly, Olbermann, Maddow, all the debates, Chris Matthews at West Chester University, every viral YouTube video she could get her hands on. The election coverage was like air: it enveloped her, gave her life, never let her down.

And now all that was being taken away. She looked as if someone had run over her favorite dog.

Linda is not alone. There is me, for instance. For months I have established a regular routine when I signed onto my computer at work (don’t tell The Management.) I checked my e-mail, filled out my Facebook status, and headed right to the bookmark labeled, “Political Stuff.” The next 30 minutes or so was a blur of jumping from one site to the next: Huffington Post, Real Clear Politics, Daily Kos, ElectoralVote.com, PolitikerPA, Political Irony, you name it. I didn’t feel complete until I had consumed all that there was to be had at each site. I was lifted up or shot down with every posting.

On Thursday, however, I sat at the computer and opened one of those sites and stared at the screen blankly. I realized that there was nothing of interest there for me anymore. I’d seen the movie’s end and had no use for the credits.

So here’s the answer to candidate McKay’s question. Here’s what we’re going to do now.

1) Check out the fall foliage. I have it on the highest authority that this year is the best in the past 50 for autumn colors in Chester County. Not only are there yellows and reds, but there are also oranges and pale greens and crimsons scatted all over the hills from Nottingham to Warwick. My suggestions for the best place to “leaf peep” are the hills above Coatesville on Oak Street, and the west window on the fifth floor of the Chester County Justice Center.

2) Volunteer for a day at a local agency. You don’t have to put in much time, but you’ve got a couple of hours a day on your hands now that Hannity & Colmes are as outdated as Currier & Ives. Call the folks at the United Way of Chester County for help in finding a place to work. They love to help.

3) When was the last time you went to the Brandywine River Museum? It’s still there, you know, and it is just as peaceful and inspiring as it was the last time you walked its floors. Plus, if the day is nice enough you can sit outside and watch the Brandywine Creek glide by, which is in many ways better than anything on Fox. Or CNN. Or MSNBC.

4) Don’t look at the calendar. 2012 is only 1,147 days away.