Yet here are the mature leaves. An evaded cadence. In my part of the world, they are now falling as the trees prepare for winter.

Also in my part of the world, and elsewhere I suppose, we wait to find out for sure who the next president will be. An evaded cadence. Many of us hoped for a decisive repudiation of racism, division and hatred, but that evaded us. We — and I’m speaking now on behalf of myself and my fellow white people — failed. We trudge listlessly to what looks like a Biden victory. It seems that we have evaded the worst but we fell tragically short of the best. Racism, hatred, and division are alive and well. Even a quarter million dead in my own country alone could not rid us of these our scourges.