We begin 2021 with our sensibilities dangling somewhere between the mockery of satire and the confused goings on in the theatre of the absurd. Who knows what lies in the crevices between now and January 20? We expect a final cry of agony or ecstasy from our departing president on January 5, when his legacy either will be put to rest when his party loses control of the Senate—or not. It is a most propitious date. Never has so much rested on our sacred duty to vote. Will we be relieved of the torment that is Donald Trump, or will his demented mind linger on in the actions of a Senate still giving their undying loyalty to our nation’s ultra wealthy? The Bible reminds us: “O grave, where is thy victory; O death, where is thy sting?”

The latest polls show that all outcomes in the two races are within the margin of error. More punishment favors two Republican wins, while more justice favors two Democratic wins. And to think that we owe all these bifurcated choices to one of the most rotten contraptions that a minority of liars and cheats from our past could conceive—the electoral system. Let us never forget that the electoral system was just another extension of slavery—begun here in the 1500s—and kept a part of our society by one deceptive practice after another. We all have paid a huge price for becoming part of the slave traffic from Africa in the 16th century, not least of which was a bitter Civil War. Recall that Walter Scott warned us: “O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

Regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, we still have perhaps a year before we can claim victory over the Covid-19 virus. The death toll now mounts higher and higher with each passing day following the holidays in which too many traveled too far or too much against the advice of experts. Both scientific minds and compassionate hearts pleaded with us. Our hospitals are now overflowing with patients, our medical teams are working longer and harder, and our graveyards are filling up too fast and too soon. Marshall McCluhan cautioned us: “There are no passengers on spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”

We each set our own compass, and we follow our own star. That is the nature and the essence of freedom. And freedom is, without a doubt, our most cherished goal. We live, we learn, we grow. But we never quite reach maturity nor true freedom. The best we can do is to stay focused on our values, and to learn from our past mistakes. Still, many others have come and gone before us. They, too, pushed onward toward a better life without guarantees. It is a struggle to the end. Or as President Abraham Lincoln (looking forward) assured us: “...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Which path will we choose?