Voting
This morning I needed to go do a few things out and about - one major thing was drop my ballot off. Each thing I did had a story and creates a story on its own. I am going to do some posts on those stories.
First story is about voting. Michaela had a double major in college. History and political science. I voted before I met her, but I only voted for major elections and on topics that were important to me personally. M changed all that. She was a political junkie. She had a political blog back in the day. She tweeted about politics. She had discussions and debates about politics with friends, family, and random strangers on the internet.
M had strong views that she articulated in eloquent and persuasive ways. One of the many reasons I fell in love with her - how she used language. I am sucker for words and people that use them well.
When we got together, she explained that she loved that I voted on what I was passionate about, but she wanted to give me another perspective. We are part of a global community. We can’t just look at what our family needs. We need to look at the people around us and what is going on with them.
M explained that she loved that her job was helping someone in trouble that might not have the right resources to tell their story. She was helping the client in front of her. There might be 5 to 10 people on this persons team to help them, but that was the immediate need of that person. M helped so many people in her job. It might not have accomplished everything the team set out to do, but sometimes a little thing helped in a way that was just enough to take some worry away from the horrible situation. It is awesome when we work to help on a local immediate need right in our personal world. But voting will help or harm more than our personal circle. It was more than just helping our family. It is helping every person’s family. So she felt it was important to vote on all issues, but to educate yourself on how this affects everyone - our community, state, and those outside our state.
So today I dropped off my ballot and thought of M. I researched the issues, I voted what on them with her philosophy in mind. Many days look dark, but there are ways I honor her like I did today in dropping my ballot off.
Also first time voting as my married name as I didn’t officially have my name changed before the last election. So that made it an extra special ballot - in my humble opinion.
