The Web
A personal essay published in print by Rock and Sling 2017
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“You’re going to vote for a Democrat?” my husband almost shouted. We were standing on the porch, having just come home from church. Dan’s hand had frozen in mid-reach for the screen door.
“I can’t believe it!” he said. “If you do that, we’ll just cancel each other out. Then what’s the point in either of us voting at all?”
His eyes matched his narrow face as he waited for my response. But I said nothing. I had spent months researching the issues, turning each candidate over in my mind, care- fully formulating a defense of my decision to vote for a different kind of candidate in this election than for the staunch Republicans I had chosen by default in the past. How then, in just four sentences, could my husband move me from confidence back into doubt?
There was a spider in its web by the door, moving toward a honeybee that was struggling to free itself from the sticky threads.