It has finally come.

The nice peace and quiet we can all enjoy has enveloped our nation once more as a heated election has finally burned itself out. The political advertisements, the jockeying for votes, the public engagement, the discourse about how we should run our nation; it has all thankfully been put back in storage.

The sentiment of wishing the election would be over had been hanging around the country for weeks. How many times did you see the same political ad over and over and think “I wish they would just shut up,” or hear someone wishing those awful prerecorded calls would stop?

While it is true, negative television advertisements and recorded phone messages are quite the annoyance, stop and take a minute to think about what people were begging for: The election to just be over — as if it was simply an inconvenience that needed to be trudged through every few years, and not one of the few times we could actually contribute something as an individual to our country.

Think long and hard about just what has been going on in the United States over the past few months. How many times did you hear people talking about national and international issues? How many times did you hear not only the names, but the ideas of the people who were or would be making choices that shape your nation? Maybe I am a little biased, but those seem like palatable things to listen to, if not downright useful.

The oft-quoted adage, “politics is not a spectator sport,” does not even seem to apply anymore. Millions of people participated in politics as spectators. They listened to ads, maybe heard something interesting or memorable at the water cooler — heck, they may have even regurgitated a line from their favorite pundit, and cast their ballot.

Such actions do not make one a participant. While voting is often seen as the be all, end all of civic duty, it is actually the culmination of what should have been occurring for years. People should have been talking with their neighbors and friends about what this country should be doing, and how the people elected to run it are doing since the last election.

The common way of thinking about voting still, however, is as an errand to be done sometime in the beginning of November. Now that there are a few years to go until the next national election, everybody can go back to their normal lives.

Or people could actually make it a point of emphasis to see what is going on in their country, so they would not need to rely on next election’s barrage of campaign advertisements that stretch already shaky so-called “truths.” People could see what their local politicians are doing to help their communities. People could go and find out about politicians who will likely be running against an incumbent next election cycle.

In short, we could keep ourselves up to date on what is going on politically in our country until the next election and put our votes to their proper use.

We could, but most of us probably think we have more important things going on every day, all day, for the next few years. It will probably just be easier for most of us to ignore our government, aside from a few grumbles about how this legislation is going to tax us too much or about how that senator had an affair.

After all, we are sure to see plenty of politics next time an election comes up. Why would anyone want to get a head start?