The first arrow

I freely confess I am still a bit confused about the whole blogging thing.
There are very FEW people whose thoughts I want to ponder on a regular basis and thus, by association, I conclude that very few people will find MY thoughts of interest on any kind of a regular basis. But there are those who have tried and who continue to try to convince me otherwise so I'm willing to give it one more go...which is why we're here.

In college I had the chance to DJ on the radio and occasionally, especially when we did a late night show, I wondered if there were even people out there listening. If no one were listening then weren't we just talking to ourselves and playing records, yes it was that long ago, in a very small room? If is that were all we were doing...wouldn't that make us slightly insane?

Blogging feels the same to me...with a little dash of arrogance thrown in for flavor.

That being said I'll attempt in my own small way to throw in a combination of the interesting, the creative and the macabre, on a semi-regular basis, for those who wish to engage...hopefully in dialogue.

I thought I'd make this run at blogging today of all days because of the "historical importance"!!! of today's elections

I woke up this morning with the full understanding that today is going to be one of those historic milestone days. We'll all, no doubt, be glad to be rid of the election campaign messaging whether we're glad with the outcome of the actual election or not.
It struck me this morning that the overwhelming majority of people I have heard comment on the election "on the street" have all had an underlying theme to their comments...

They're all voting against something rather than for something.

Most of those I've heard in support of Senator Obama have said they're voting for "change". One of the major thrusts of his campaign has been that voting for the Rebuplican candidate, no matter who it would have turned out to be, would be a vote for what we have now and thus a vote for "change" is a vote AGAINST what we have now.

In the same way many of the folks I have heard in support of Senator McCain have said that they could never vote in favor of the "socialist agendas" or the "more government" policies of the Dems. Thus, they too are choosing to vote AGAINST something.

Neither conversation have had much to say about what they LIKE about the party or person they're voting for but a LOT to say about what they DON'T like about the opposition.

Doesn' this start to feel like our only option is to choose the "lesser of two evils"?

Sure it winds up being painted up much prettier than that but that's what it boils down to in the end. And, in the end, that is sad.
Sad that there are large numbers of folks voting today to make sure the "other guy" or the "other way of thinking" doesn't get in.
Sad because it will serve to only further the divide between competing idiologies.
Sad because there will be those who are happy that the others are sad.

If it is true that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" then how much longer have we got as a nation?

No matter what your political persuasion is...
No matter how you voted today...
No matter what your core beliefs...
I like to challenge you to become an agent of change by bringing about reconcilliation, community, and relationship.
Cheesy? perhaps...
..perhaps not.