Codger’s column: And now …

Just before The Great Exhalation, Codger’s friend, G, sent him a message that contained this paragraph:

Whatever the outcome, please find your own peace and solace in knowing that life goes on no matter what. The best work you and I have done in our respective lives had little or nothing to do with electoral politics. The same is true for most folks.  There are far more important things in life — like the personal place we each share with Eternity.

As you may remember, in this place last month, Codger officially furloughed G as a friend — with an option to fire him — after almost 40 years. G’s offense was voting, yet again, for what he breezily called “the Orange Man.” Codger was bewildered as much as appalled; G could be fooled once by that malignant lunatic, but not twice, unless he had greedy intentions or a deficit in reason. G, a former tax lawyer and long-time do-gooder, has neither.

At the end of last month’s column, Codger declared that he “would like his friend back and Orange Man gone.”

Codger obviously can get his friend back, but Orange Man will probably never be completely gone. The damage he’s done — and will continue to do during his last two months as president — may not be completely repairable, and the divisions he’s helped exacerbate may only widen.

Trumpism will live on. Don’t forget, along with G, almost half the voting public cast ballots for him. Climate change, racism, sexism, inequality and the pandemic aren’t going away and neither is Trump.

So what do we do now?

For starters, chill. Codger has been thinking about a recent local incident in which a Town Board member got into an argument with two town workers who had parked their pick-ups, Trump banners flying, by the scales in the middle of the Recycling Center.

While Codger missed the argument, he had observed the scene; he thought it looked as if the dump were for Trump. The workers, thought Codger, had every right to adorn their own trucks, that’s free speech, but maybe they shouldn’t have parked them where they did. Was that a failure of dump leadership or political agreement?

The complaining Town Board member, a hard-working stalwart who is famously dedicated to his own free speech, had every right to object, but maybe he could have done it less passionately.

And maybe we should just be grateful that the incident was so contained. Codger is certain there will be plenty of skirmishes ahead as Trumpism, with its banners of hatred and fear, try to disrupt Joe Biden’s main mission of being a healing president. In that spirit, Codger has been trying to temper his own tendency toward snark and retort while searching for more common ground. Naturally, he’s been listening to Crone.

He’s even been listening to Cur II, who has shown him that most dogs work out their issues better than most humans do and that dogs make humans better. (Beware dogless presidents.) The entire Codger Clan is delighted by the return of dogs to the White House. Two of them! Big ones! One a rescue!

Meanwhile, here in town, the movement to create a new Comprehensive Plan seems perfectly timed for an era of renewal and incremental progress. Many of the problems of Shelter Island are the problems of America writ small — water quality and quantity, infrastructure, affordable housing, environmental protection — and will need help from off-Island government agencies.

Problems unique to the Island may require an attitude adjustment. Codger wonders how comprehensive planners will approach such matters as enforcement, long a dirty word in a faux libertarian climate, and in balancing the needs of a changing population. The COVID refugees have brought with them — besides more schoolkids — a new energy and perspective.

Advising the Comprehensive Plan Task Force are a dozen solid citizens listed on the town website. They were tasked with soliciting ideas for the plan. Codger says, Don’t be shy about making suggestions to them.

And he adds, harelegger-up for what may be a tough winter as the virus tests our increasing neediness to visit with other people in more intimate and relaxed environments than guidelines recommend. Staying the course ahead means wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands, of course, but also finding new reservoirs of empathy and giving others slack, whatever banners they wave.    

In that spirit, while Codger is not entirely sure that G deserves the last word, he gets it. Just before the election, G wrote this:

If the incumbent loses, I’ll take some real joy in knowing how happy you and many other friends will be. Besides, then I can blame your guys for whatever goes awry over the next four years

Codger says, Go for it, friend.