Vote for the light to change

In this uncertain time, reeking of financial mismanagement, unemployment, higher inflation and insecurity, there is a cry across the land for change. In a week, we will vote in likely the most contentious election in the past eight years. Obama’s mantra is “Vote for Change.” One need not vote specifically for change. Change just happens.

Voting for change is nice. His is a catchy phrase that his public relations folks, who are surely paid exorbitant sums of money because he can afford it, most likely invented. Or in this case, better yet, reinvented. Change is all around us in many different ways.

This financial crisis came on suddenly. Still to this day, I really don’t understand it. The government can’t explain it to me nor can the CEO’s who drove their business to bankruptcy and walked away with millions. The last time I heard the term derivatives, I think I was in high school dreaming about Christie Brinkley. Shorts? Bermudas. But, these terms led to a crisis that changed my lifestyle. It is Publix chicken instead of Perdue on our barbecue. Now, I act like my father and chase after everyone at home to shut off all the lights (I guess there was a method to that madness). I buy toothpaste and toilet paper in bulk, when on sale, because neither go bad. Energy saving lightbulbs are being phased in throughout the house. They give off this nice, white, nuclear-like glow in each room. I’ve put the dishwasher on normal wash instead of heavy. Who knows if this saves a lot of energy or water. At least I feel good because I think I’m on the green bandwagon now. Hopefully it runs on ethanol or hydrogen and not gas.

There are other changes, quicker and more subtle, all around me. Lights change from green to red on the street. Of course, if mine turns red, I’ll curse the guy for going slowing down and because I’m from Boston, it’s what we do up there. Seasons change. We have two in Miami, damn hot and hot.

It was once thought that drinking alcohol was bad for you. If done in moderation, now, it is not a problem. Drinking one glass of red wine is now encouraged as it lowers cholesterol. Coffee was once shunned. Yet, today, it is believed that one or two cups a day can be healthy. Juan Valdez’s lobbyists may have been behind this study. I also figure if one or two cups are healthy, then eight or nine have to be even better.

We used to be told that red meat was unhealthy and had to be cut out of our diet to lose weight. The vegans were surely spitting blood angry when along came Dr. Atkins. For years, his diet has been considered one of the best for losing weight. And on the eighth day, joy fell upon every carnivore in the land. Actually, drinking wine to lower cholesterol while eating the equivalent of two cows is like the intersection of health and well-being. What a change!

Plaid was out with the end of the 70’s, but happily kept alive by some lumberjacks. Along came grunge and then it was in fashion again. That music has now gone the way of plaid, although I’m told in some corners of Vermont they still listen to Soundgarden and Nirvana.

Living together before marriage was once considered a sin. Now, whether you are straight, gay or other, it is quietly approved. It has done nothing for the divorce rate, though.

The Red Sox lose for eighty six years and we New Englanders felt like the most cursed fans. Then the Sox changed, went out and won the World Series twice in three years. Today, we are spoiled.

When I look around at all the things I’d like to change, I question whether I really want to. Change just comes naturally, in every aspect of my life, whether I'm in control of it or not. I know the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will change in January. And it's true, the only thing that is constant is change and I don't even have to vote for it.