Odds & ends

• Another reason I'm glad I'm not an American: elections every two years -- yikes!!  Granted, not every position is up for re-election every two years -- albeit some are -- but still...! As a voter, I think elections every two years (and for so many positions -- I must admit, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of elected judges and other law officials...!) would be horribly stressful -- it's stressful enough watching from across the border (and being deluged with a relentless stream of ads on TV that don't even apply to us and that we can do nothing about), lol!  Our own system, with elections every 4-5 years on average (unless you're in a minority government situation, in which case they could happen earlier), is bad enough, lol.  ;)  
• It's disappointing that some right-wing politicians and policies were not more thoroughly repudiated -- and I guess we'll see how things play out over the next two years -- but hey, overall, the results could have been much, much worse...
• Since the time change this past weekend, it's light outside earlier in the morning again -- but it's dark by about 5:30 p.m. now.  Sigh... :(   (And it will keep getting darker, earlier, until the winter solstice in mid-December.)  
• I know it would get keep getting darker, earlier, at this time of year, regardless of whether the time changed as usual or whether it stayed the same all year long -- but it's the abruptness of the change, that sudden plunge into late afternoon darkness, that makes it so hard to deal with, I think...!  
• Bloglovin' is back (again) this morning! (For how long, who knows?? But I'll enjoy it while I can...!) 
• There was a great post in Carolyn Hax's advice column from the Washington Post last weekend from "the world's greatest aunt" who went through some tough times but is now happy with her childless, single life and has no desire to date -- and yet is constantly nagged by friends who think she has a unhealthy fear of commitment and want to introduce her to men, etc.  I love Carolyn's response (and the last line in particular, lol). It's obviously relevant to childless singles -- but also, I think, to just generally having our decisions (to stop ttc, to not adopt, etc.) and childless lives generally questioned and challenged by others. 
• From Medium:  Ali Hall, echoing a recent viral piece by Yael Wolfe:  "The Modern-Day Twist on “The Village” To Promote Equitability for All:  Regardless of our parental or relationship status, we all need our village." Yes! Sample passage: 

...parents are not the only sector to suffer from the diminished social infrastructure.

...There’s a latent expectation in some that those who are not parents should serve those who are parents. As if “The Village” is a trust fund that you suddenly have access to once you have a child.

This sense of entitlement is missing the whole point of “The Village.” For a village to function, it requires us all to be active members as soon as we can comprehend the workings of a community.

It takes time to build communities. They are an investment of love and support. A conglomerate of skills and interests. Expecting a village to present itself on command indicates a lack of personal contribution. I can’t help but wonder whether those who shout the loudest for a village have ever served as a villager.

If we want the benefits of a village, we must also be a villager.

• She's singing my song!:  I loved Anne Helen Petersen's recent piece in her Culture Study newsletter on Substack about the phenomenon of "sprawling holidays," or holiday inflation. (Visits from the St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun, anyone?? -- definitely not a "thing" when I was growing up...!)  Some great conversation in the comments, too!  (One theory re: the new popularity of the leprechaun is that March is the least Instagrammable month... I think there may be something to that...!) 
• I was reminded of this post I wrote, 9 years ago now (!), about the Elf on the Shelf, as well as the pieces that informed it, from Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon, and Rage Against the Minivan (this piece in particular -- but I also found this one and this one). 
• A lot of what Petersen has to say is filtered through the lens of parents & children (she herself is childfree by choice), but there's a lot of great social commentary -- including a nod to pronatalism and those of us who don't have kids [emphasis mine]:  

Performing Christmas became a way to maintain middle-class domestic cohesion — to broadcast to your immediate and extended family and the whole block that we’ve got this on lock. (So many of the current attributes of Christmas reinforce the middle-class American family ideal: the primary signifiers [the tree, the visible lights] are “best” on display in the single-family dwelling; you can only get a (sizeable) tree with a car and someone capable of heaving it around. The “magic” of Christmas depends on the presence of children to experience it alongside; to spend Christmas alone is framed as some sort of unspeakable sadness).

• Less than 40 days (!) until we head "home" to my family for Christmas holidays... eeeeekkkkk..... 
• We finally booked our plane tickets about a week ago. Holy cow, they were a whole lot more expensive than our flights last  month, and probably the most we've paid to fly west in quite a while. It would probably be cheaper for us to fly to Florida or Mexico...!  (And meantime, the service just keeps getting worse and worse...!)  Yikes!