A columnist that I frequently read wrote just before election day that we have now reached, for a short while, the end of silly season. Silly season is the every two or four year election campaign in our country. Regardless of how needed it may be or what good might conceivably come of it all, the one theme I hear uttered consistently before the election is, "I will be so glad when all of this is over." Silly Season.
Glad to be done with the media attack ads costing millions of dollars. Glad to no longer have to hear that certain campaigns were the most expensive ever. Glad to no longer have to hear that "The American people want....(fill in the blank)" and to realize that I am an American and that such is not what I want at all. Glad to no longer have to hear an individual say, "When I get to Washington (or Raleigh)this is what I am going to do", when it only takes a middle school civics course to teach that individuals don't really accomplish much by themselves but in concert and compromise with others, even those with whom they disagree. To try anything else is to have gridlock (sound familiar??). Glad to no longer have to tolerate the insult that certain groups have an agenda when most politicians, by their staying on certain talking points, have nothing but an agenda. Glad to have a reprieve from someone being asked a question and, while looking straight into the camera, contort themselves into all kinds of pretzel like shapes and refusing to answer the question directly. Glad to have a few moments in which I do not feel like I am being lied to. Glad to have an occasion when, for a brief time, I can shake off the realization that my representative seldom ever represents me or my interests. Glad to have a few moments of breathing space when I am no longer treated like an idiot.
Ah, but silly season will soon return. Like a bad head cold or chest congestion that just will not go away, it will come back with force. By early 2011, our country will already be in high gear toward 2012. Or maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe that started the day after the election.
Democracy is a beautiful reality. And it is hard work. I don't mind the hard work. It just seems that the spirit of it all is somehow beginning to head south. It is in a moment like this that I am reminded that I participate in the kingdom of this world, but only secondarily so. There is another kingdom that beckons my attention. At its heart is compassion, service, sacrifice, love,inclusion, and faith. The kingdom of this world does not understand this primary kingdom at all. To this world, such fleshed-out realities are sheer silliness.
All in how you see it.
A further note: I have enjoyed doing these blogs. It stretches me to stay with them. Now that I seem to have the time, I want to work with them more consistenly. Sometimes there will be statements that are brief, but also published more readily. I also want to start adding to the blog page. I need to go back to Madysen's pictures and other works that some of you might share. I am going to start adding a list of other blogs that you might find helpful and challenging. My hope is that when you come to Westjourn, there will more and more be something that will capture your imagination.
In the meantime..........take risks!
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