A Christmas car ride

Christmastime in the United States is a magical, special time of year meant to be spent in the warmth and company of family. Special meals, singing Christmas Carols, and gift-exchanging are common traditions that we enjoy during this most special of American holidays. If how we spend this holiday holds any special portents of the year to come, this will be the strangest year of all for me, because this was the strangest Christmas I ever spent.

On Christmas Eve, during our annual get-together at my home in New Jersey, I got a call from my sister-in-law. "Please come to Long Island right away. My mother just died in Florida, and your brother needs help driving down to Florida tomorrow." So, with apologies to my guests, and leaving them in the care of the other eight members of my household, my daughter and I jumped in a car and made the three-hour late-night drive to Long Island, New York. We were planning to go to Long Island anyway in the morning, to spend Christmas with my own parents, and the rest of my siblings. My brother's wife caught a flight early on Christmas morning to be with her father in this difficult time, but flights were booked so solid that my brother was not able to secure a seat on the plane. Many people wanted to travel before record-breaking snowfall shut down airports all along the Eastern Seaboard between Boston and Florida.

We had to move all festivities forward by about six hours, so that my brother could jump in his car and make the 1200 mile drive to Florida. The trip was a long way to drive alone, and we all felt that my brother should not make the journey alone, especially on Christmas Day. I volunteered to drive down with him.

Truthfully, I was looking forward to spending time with my brother, he works very hard and we don't get together as often as I'd like. Despite the disappointment of having to be on the road during the holiday season, I felt eager to accompany him. We were about to embark upon a real adventure. As the miles rolled by, we talked about family, sports and politics. My brother is a Conservative Republican, and I am a Democrat, so we had some interesting discussions about how President Obama was "destroying the country" through his "socialist" policies. I did not argue very vigorously against my brother. Obama has been less than dynamic as president, overly intellectual, and insists on speaking in the first person plural, saying "we have accomplished all our goals for 2010" instead of "I have accomplished my goals." He doesn't prompt much empathy, even among his proponents.

Somehow, Obama has not been able to connect with the American public. He seems out of sync. But as I listened to my brother, I discovered that we actually agreed on many points.

My brother has a rugged sports utility vehicle equipped with satellite radio, so we listened to the weather reports. It turns out that the same storm that was depositing snow in the Northeast had created mudslides which buried homes in Florida. It affected almost everyone in the nation.

And where was our President? He, like most Americans went home for Christmas, which means he was in Hawaii. Not his fault, but he was one of the only people far from the reaches of our common experience. Once again, he was out of touch.

We were three hours into our trip when the snow started falling. By the ninth hour of our journey, we were making little progress, and the roads were becoming dangerous. We sang Christmas carols to keep our spirits up, and tried to press on through the night. The snowfall reduced visibility to near zero. We had no choice. We had to pull in and spend the night at a hotel. We booked a room, and went to look for a place to eat our Christmas dinner.

In snow-paralysed Virginia, We could find no restaurant open. One convenience store near our hotel offered a bag of cashews, an orange, some chocolate ice cream and yogurt. This was our Christmas dinner.

The morning of December 26, with my deadline for this article looming, we hit the road. The conditions worsened as we drove. Regions that had not seen Christmas snowfall in 100 years were getting 35 cm of snow on the ground. We witnessed trucks and cars sliding into ditches, as we travelled. At times, the ice on the road forced traffic to a standstill. Traffic conditions worsened as we headed into the teeth of the blizzard. As we continued to discuss politics, the snowfall increased, and the worst was yet to come. If we couldn't push South quickly enough to avoid the heaviest snowfall, we would be stuck in North Carolina for three days. We pushed forward through the afternoon, listening to the American football games, and discussing family and politics. We realised we had more in common politically than we initially believed.

I also talked to him about Bangladesh. I think the one item he was most horrified to hear about was the shooting of young Bangladeshi herders crossing the border into India. Whatever your politics, most Americans would react with horror when they hear that the Indian border guards seem to value the lives of the cows over that of the herders. "Why doesn't that ever go on the news?" He commented. "It should get more publicity. It's insane."

In America, one shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican crossing the US-Mexican border sparked general outcry from Americans on both sides of the political divide, and was widely publicised in the news here.

Ultimately, most Americans like to believe they have a deep sense of common decency which is a component of our national character. We come together in times of crisis, and we work well together in emergencies. This has always been our strength. Sometimes, just spending time together forces people to talk, to come to some consensus. Luckily, this is precisely what President Obama did after the Democrats were defeated in November, and the electorate could not be happier. In a few weeks, a Republican congress will come to Washington. They will strive to repeal some of the measures the President fought to secure, most importantly the Health Care Bill. They vow to be uncompromising. They don't realise that the American people do not want uncompromising politicians. They want balance. That's why they elected a Republican Congress to work with the last two Democratic Presidents.

My thoughts turned to Bangladesh. Could it be that the Bangladeshi people really like the daily drama of partisan politics any better than the American public does? As important as it is to root out corruption, don't most people prefer to focus on issues that unify, rather than divide the country? If I am struggling to make a living, if my factory is unsafe, if my cattle smuggling teenager is being shot at, if my drinking water contains arsenic, do I ultimately care how corrupt the champion of my cause is as long as s/he can accomplish some life-altering good for my nation? And does the average Bangladeshi citizen ultimately care if that life altering good comes from the AL or the BNP? Aren't both sides working for a common cause?

On our epic car ride, as we emerged from the storm, we ran into spots along our route where no other cars were on the road. My brother took pictures with his cell-phone. Now, it's 12:13 am, and I am sitting in a hotel in Georgia, 50 miles from the Florida border, and about six hours from the end of our journey. The family crisis and the abbreviated Christmas celebration became a rare chance for busy brothers to bond. The greatest gift I unwrapped this Christmas was getting to reacquaint myself with my younger brother on our trip through the Great Costal Blizzard of 2010. My Christmas prayer for my fellow Americans, Republican or Democrat, is that they get a similar opportunity to get reacquainted in the year to come, so that as a people, we can reach a consensus that will keep us ahead of the difficult weather. It is the same prayer I make for the people of Bangladesh. Merry Christmas.
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Frank Domenico Cipriani writes a weekly column in the Riverside Signal called "You Think What You Think And I'll Think What I Know." He is also the founder and CEO of The Gatherer Institute — a not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting respect for the environment and empowering individuals to become self-taught and self-sufficient. His most recent book, "Learning Little Hawk's Way of Storytelling", is scheduled to be released by Findhorn Press in May of 2011.