Making sense

Anne Lamott, on writing ...

"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.”

Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts

Monday, October 13, 2008

A special message to a favorite blogger, and all others who stop by to visit

Glad to see, Bee, from your recent posts that your funk is subsiding. Meanwhile, I'm in one myself, a funk of mythic proportion. I've been thinking, My God, what is wrong with me, and so, today, instead of paying attention at a USELESS staff meeting, I sat with yellow legal pad and made a list of all that's bothering me.
I shall share it with you:
1) My mother (She makes me crazy but she is dying and I must be the world's worst daughter because I really don't feel that it's in MY best interest to visit her.)
2) My son (His girlfriend dumped him on Saturday. Instead of a "Dear John" letter, she sent an email, asking to be "just friends." His heart is broken. Therefore, so is mine.)
3) My weight. Ye gads I have gotten bigger and bigger. Kind of marshmallow-ish around the middle.
4) Sticky-icky weather. Come, come fall. This summery stuff sucks.
5) Not blogging. Why are you not blogging, Kathleen? Why? Why? Why?
6) Overall, no-good-reason bad mooding. Is this menopause? Feeling like I'm PMS-ing constantly.
7) Lack of coordinated drapery and bedding in the master bedroom. Why can't I get my bedroom design to click? Where's the black-and-white toile I've coveted for years?
8) Stack of mini-assessments to grade. I mean, STACK. One hundred of them to grade. Can't. Seem. To. Get. Motivated.
9) Absent exercise. Must get to the gym. Must get to the gym. Must get to the gym.
10) Why am I hot all the time?
11) McCain-Palin ticket.
12) McCain-Palin ticket.
13) Must get fall decorations out of boxes. Scarecrow to porch. Must purchase assorted gourds to decorate steps.
14) Pay new subscription to MORE magazine. Going to miss issues if payment is not made.
15) Why aren't tulip bulbs planted?

Monday, September 1, 2008

Political race is revving up ...

Wow. Wow. Wow.
Normally, I'm not a political junkie. Sure, I'm interested, just not obsessed.
Until now.
First, there was Barack Obama's impassioned DNC speech before 80,000 folks in Colorado. What an orator the Illinois senator is. For forty five minutes I was riveted to my television screen. Riveted. Impressed with his words and his vision. Happy ... no, scratch that ... elated ... ELATED that he finally did some firing back to GOP misclaims. No, there will not be a raising of middle class taxes. ("I will cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.") Refuted the Republicans' claim that he isn't patriotic. ("We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. I will never hesitate to defend this nation.")
An absolutely stunning, STUNNING speech that was more State of the Union than convention rhetoric.
And then, just when I thought I couldn't be happier (thank goodness there's change coming!), Senator McCain announces his running mate, Sarah Palin, governor from Alaska.
Sarah Who?
Former mayor of what town?
A town of how many? There are more moose and elk there than people.
My first response: McCain just shot himself in the foot. No one knows who this Palin woman is. Surely people won't elect a Veep who had a whopping 900 people vote her in for mayor. I had 400 more votes than that when I was elected to a school board seat.
I thought: Obama just won the presidency.
That was my first response.
Since that first response, I've talked to people (two sisters-in-law and a grocery checkout clerk). They like this Sarah-Who. Why, because she's pretty? This I want to ask, but it seems kind of snotty-pants. You know nothing about her, so why do you like her? This I do ask. And the response I hear is this: "I heard she might be anti-abortion. I won't vote for anyone who is pro-choice." (So much for the McCain camp thinking the maverick will get Hillary's voters.)

Ah, I think: Single-issue voters.
Voters who don't read the paper, don't watch real news programming, don't understand, really, that politics is never about a single issue. Don't try to understand. Just go out and vote for a particular candidate all because of one embedded conviction.

Now that I just don't get.

But I'm listening. And, yes, I'll be watching the Republican National Convention every night, too.
I'm what's called a Big Picture thinker.