…………….. You know what I mean?

I realize today is the day that I’m supposed to blogging all over the place about the election result and how I feel about it, but I don’t really want to.  When we went into this election my feeling was “vote for bad or different bad.”  As much as I would like to be thrilled about the fact that, for the first time in American history, we have someone other than a white male in the position of President and a hope for change, I can’t be thrilled about his position on abortion and the question of Israel hangs heavy over my Pentecostal head.

But my gray mood today is for other reasons as well.  I recently ended one of my closest friendships of ten years, not a decision I made lightly.  Although I feel relieved, I’m also plagued by those horrible feelings of “did I make the right decision.”  At this point, if someone from my “real life” that is personally related to this is reading, please don’t read below the break.  This blog was meant as a place where I could talk about anything without worrying about real-life recriminations and judgments.  In fact, if you are reading and DO know me in real life, please let me know.  (Paranoia, paranoia, everybody’s coming to get meeeee….)

Hopes of a nation

I was reading the most recent Real Simple this morning and the question for the issue was “What are your hopes for this country?”  And nobody replied “that Barack Obama will be elected our new President” or “that John McCain will lead us into a period of economic re-growth and stability.”  No, these women were hoping for a country that thought of others before themselves; that practiced sustainable, environmentally-friendly growth; that didn’t waste so much time and negative energy trying to win votes for the next election that they eroded our faith and their ability to be human; and that remembered who we are, the hundreds of other places we’ve come from and still depend on and still has a vision of the world we want to leave to our children.

And I thought, what does it take to create this kind of a world?  What keeps us from making any steps in these directions?

I think the answer is that we’re afraid that, by giving of ourselves to people we don’t know and may never meet, we’re going to lose something in our own lives.  We think that if we can’t have a completely off-the-grid house or recycle 100%, we can’t recycle even a quarter of our garbage or shop more responsibly.  We are afraid it won’t do anything for us.  To which I must reply (to myself, because I am just as guilty as anyone), so what?  So what if I will never see a direct benefit from kindness, from mindfulness that I/we as a nation are not alone and not the most important in this world?  Doesn’t the fact that we can make someone, anyone’s life better give us enough of a reason?

All it takes to start is a moment.  Smile at strangers in the grocery store, recycle your tin cans, volunteer, give to charity, give time to a charity, love people for who they are and the history they have.  I love to hope for the kind of nation we could have.