Nine months is a long time.
Why, some people can produce a whole human being in nine months.
Nine months equals 267 days, which is 6,408 hours or 384,480 minutes.
In nine months, assuming your car goes 95 km per hour, you could drive all the way to the moon and halfway back.
If you are afraid of heights, you could take 15 motor trips around the earth.
In nine months you could cook – one at a time – 32,040 boiled eggs.
It takes 70 hours and 40 minutes to read the Bible, from “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” straight through to Revelations 22:21. So you could do that 90 times in nine months.
(Google is too awesome.)
The 2018 municipal elections take place Saturday, October 20. That’s roughly nine months from now.
That’s a long time.
The election period officially opened January 1, although nominations cannot be filed until September 4, and the campaign period does not begin until September 22.
So far two residents have stepped forward on social media announcing their intentions to seek local seats.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
What might have once been perceived as jumping the starting pistol is now no more than a consequence of the Facebook revolution.
Prospective candidates aside, however, it’s evident election fever is already raising temperatures within the community.
Last week one member of the town’s bypass trail committee used the E-word twice during a meeting while expressing his views on off road vehicles to sitting members of council.
The election is certainly trending on local Facebook pages, where even the most straightforward posts regarding municipal issues and events are descended upon and dissected with the gusto of a room full of CNN news anchors. There is something slightly frenetic about the whole situation.
And it would be unlikely, if not impossible, for any community to be able to sustain or survive such a pace until two weeks past Thanksgiving.
Certainly it’s important to get to know the people who will be running for town council, school board and regional district. As the seasons progress (spring, summer, fall) more people will declare their bids for leadership.
It’s crucial that voters ask questions, provide input and understand where candidates stand on key concerns.
But nine months is a long time.
And this exercise has already demonstrated its ability to create division and animosity.
Not every “issue” that will face the residents of Princeton in 2018 is going to be an election issue.
The point? Relax.
Go for a drive, stare at the moon, plan a picnic and don’t forget the hard boiled eggs.
Read the Good Book and pay special attention to the part about loving your neighbor.
On a related note, maybe you want to start a family. You have time.
The average western adult takes 5,000 steps every day, which amounts to 1.33 million steps over nine months. We should all take them slow. Or we may be too tired to walk to the polls, on October 20.
-AD