Member-only story
The Last Minute Dread You’re Feeling Right About Now
Believe me, I feel it too
Now what? Went to the grocery store in an odd panic, buying food for tomorrow in case… in case… I don’t even know what. It seemed smart to stock up on essentials. Voting? Did it days ago. Arrange to watch returns with friends? Of course not, because COVID. In 2016, we were invited to four election night parties and we strategized traveling from one to the other as if we were landing planes at JFK. Of course, twenty minutes into the first party, it became no party at all, more of a shell-shock ward, and we slunk home early and pulled the covers over our heads.
This year? I told a friend I’d call him tomorrow about something unrelated to the election, and he said, No, don’t call, it’s going to be too weird of a day, I’m not going to answer the phone. Now, I’ve lived through many elections and never had a PHONE CALL turned down before. What can we call this strange, disassociated, floating, disoriented anxiety? Have we ever felt it before? I have no prior memory of such a feeling; certainly never in connection to an election. It is some species of anxiety, but with a tinge of dread that’s different. A thud in the gut. I don’t like it.
I’m watching the news and not watching. I’m reading polls and not reading. I’m sending last-minute donations here and there, for no…
