I May Not Survive This Election
It's here. The lead-up to Election 2012. As part of my job, I need to look at it, to look at it with as open a mind as I can muster. I can't hide my head and turn off Twitter and the television, like I'd really, really like to do. It's good, in a way, as it's forcing me to confront the issues of the day and solidify how I feel about them and make sure I get myself to the voting booth on time.
But wow, I'm really struggling with it. Last night the little angel brought me my bear when I was reduced to tears of frustration and anger at an article I saw on Twitter.
I thanked her and took her to curriculum night at her school and immersed myself for forty-five minutes in all the things that third-graders learn, what sort of help they need and how we can best prepare them for fourth grade by what they learn this year (note: addition and subtraction rote memorization).
Then we drove home into the darkening sky with the top down. Returned a movie. Got a shake. Walked back into a house strewn with two-hour-old milk and the remnants of dinner scattered across the table because we were so late when we left.
It is perhaps the collision of such big ideas and issues with the mundane that paralyzes me. Needing to take out the garbage and scoop the cat litter and wash the dishes in the face of such important political movement, knowing I have no time to volunteer nor any money to give -- things are tight all around. I have my voice, and I donate it as freely as I can, but it pains me to tell Planned Parenthood not this time, I understand you've lost your funding again, but I just can't right now. Call back in a few months, maybe things will be different.
I'm tapped out. That's what I felt when I surveyed the kitchen last night, my laptop still open next to the half-full soup bowl, Twitter updating and updating and updating, the headlines falling off the screen as quickly as they appeared.
Tweet.
Tweet.
Tweet.
In less depressing news, I reviewed some prescription sunglasses on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!