Love-Hate Relationship With Politicians

I simultaneously admire and despise politicians.

I admire them because it's a job I would NEVER want to do. It seems to me to be quite thankless. Someone is always unhappy with you no matter what you do or say. And God help you if you actually had a life before you got into politics because someone, somewhere is gonna have pictures, or video, or audio or proof of some sort of the (perhaps) one time there was a lapse in your otherwise good judgement and it ruins you AND ruins your family.

And I despise them because it seems that at their core, they are all completely full of total complete and unadulterated bullshit!! They will say anything to get as many votes as they can. They will say anything about the other so that they themselves appear squeaky clean in comparison. And some of them you just know are not. And, in Great Falls it seems, they will even stoop to stealing each others' campaign signs out of yards.

All in all, they seem to be a bunch of lying, cheating, back-stabbing, dirty-tricks-playing dimwits.

And any of them that do have the slightest bit of idealism (and by that I mean a basic belief that real change is really possible) arrive in Washington D.C. (even the White House, for that matter) and have it promptly stomped out of them because in order to get anything done, you have to get to be part of the "old boy" network that 1) broke us in the first place and 2) can't seem to fix a damn thing.

I have been told that if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain. So, rest assured gentle readers, I will be voting even though Montana has no national candidates. Even if it's just for the right to bitch about politicians, I will be voting.

I believe that change begins locally and spreads globally. So even though I'm only voting for local and state officials, I will choose my vote carefully and thoughtfully, not ONLY because I believe in the same things as my candidate, but also because I believe the person I choose is capable of doing the thankless job that requires them to live in a fishbowl with everyone and their brother continually bitching about all the things they are doing wrong.

VOTE THIS ELECTION DAY - NOVEMBER 2ND!!!

Delighting in the Dynamic

My "Message from God" for today (actually a few days back, but anyway..):

"On this day God wants you to know...that you've been missing out on delight God has sent your way. Think back over the last day - what could you have taken with delight that you just skipped over?"

And that bothered me because I don't very often take delight in the good things. I am far to focused on the bad things and have a great tendency to wallow around in the crap.

This not only endangers my precarious-at-best mental health, but also my sobriety because I am supposed to be keeping an "attitude of gratitude."

And I'll tell you - that attitude is damn hard to keep in the face of everything I deal with every day.

I did some bitching in an earlier post about being so horrifically tired. Started last Monday and never really let up until Friday. But even though Monday was bad, the rest of the week I was able to get some rest. Some much needed, much appreciated rest. And I feel bad because the laundry didn't get folded and the dishes didn't get done. But as a result of having rested, I feel kind of almost something approaching good. I was able to take the kiddos to McD's for dinner.

And through the day, really, I felt better. I got to the store and got what I needed to get some things done.

And then actually got those things done.

And that made me feel a little better about myself. And because I felt a little better about myself, every little tiny thing that comes along didn't bother me quite so badly and I wasn't quite as cranky as I usually am.

I even let the kiddos have the toys in their happy meals BEFORE all the nuggets were gone. Usually I sound like a broken record - eat your food eat your food eat your food EAT YOUR FOOD!!!!! But on this night, I was able to put the record player away and just let them be kids. (And they did eat all their nuggets even though they got the toy first!)

Saturday and Sunday were not as good but still pretty okay. And then on Monday we were back to the cranky, tired, bitchy person who feels like crap. I did manage to stay awake all day, though. And the rest of the week was just okay. Sunday sucked the life out of me again. I spent most of the day napping on and off and as a result have not slept. So, if I sound a little nuttier than usual, it's becuase I'm riding a caffeine enduced, sleep deprived roller coaster of free falling thought.

And I've decided that I DO need to take the time to not "skip over" the small things. So, here's a few that I noticed over the weekend....

The leaves. They are mostly turned to varying shades of yellow, gold, orange and red. I love the colors of fall. I did, however, feel a bit sad as it seems like just yesterday the trees had finally all turned green and now, in no time at all, will be bare again.

The length of shadows. The tree on my boulevard only shades the very front part of my lawn during the summer. I noticed yesterday that the shadow now reaches all the way up to my front steps.

The temperature. It varies wildly from day to night. Sometimes even from day to day while Mother Nature tries to decide if it is still summer, or if it is truly autumn.

And as I'm noticing these things, I'm also noticing a theme.

Things change. The weather, the seasons. People.

The nature of the Universe is dynamic, not static. EVERYTHING changes.

And I can either roll with them, or be rolled over by them.