As I have the last several major holidays, on Easter, I went with Sally to eat at her friend's home in the Capay Valley (together with numerous family members of her friend). As always, the company was pleasant and jovial, but unlike last Thanksgiving, it was raining, so sojourns through the pretty countryside were off-limits.
Since the family is mostly robustly Republican, I endeavored to steer the conversation away from any issues that might be controversial, no matter how provoked I might get, because I'm wary of disrupting good feelings for what might turn out in hindsight to be just ephemera and happenstance.
At the beginning of the afternoon, just to get the conversation going, Son #1 arrived carrying a brand new copy of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue". Oh, oh! Ammunition! I joined Son #2 in the other room (a closet Democrat).
There was a natural division at dinner, with the Republican family center at Table #1, and the closet Democrats (+ one Republican) at Table #2. At Table #2, conversation turned dangerously to the subject of draft dodging in the Vietnam War. At one point, referring to the conversation's evolution, Sally said 'never discuss religion or politics!' Worried about any incipient iciness, and in order to soothe feelings, I said 'oh, this isn't politics' (it's history - very, very recent history, it's true, but not politics - exactly). Conversation remained copacetic, and certainly less inflammmatory than at over Table #1 (where I overheard something about inner-city minorities voting en masse for Obama).
After dinner, we wandered over to Table #1. Son #1 said 'did you hear about the new mandate to get higher auto mileage by 2014?' Nephew replied 'when was that?' '2014,' replied Son #1. Nephew replied, 'we'll have that bastard out-of-office by then!'
Son #1 looked around for his brother and noticed that he was in the other room. Waxing expansive, he said 'now that we are all Republicans here we can really get into it!' Sally said, 'Marc and I are both Democrats!' Surprised, everyone looked expectantly at me. Awkwardly, I replied, 'Well, I was disappointed how health care reform turned out' (which is true, because it didn't include a public option, but fortunately that's not how they interpreted my remark). Tensions immediately eased and conversation turned away from politics and towards the much-safer ground of religion, and Nephew's philosophical objections to saying 'Happy Easter' (not a happy holiday, for one; two, named for a pagan goddess).
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