political monkey mind

so the democratic national convention has been going on. and i feel kind of like a twit to say that i haven't paid attention because we started piano lessons, my spouse is finishing a month of nights, the kids had a friend spend the night, i bought groceries, i cooked... yeah, i know, not things really high up on the priority list...and i mean, really...so it wasn't a convenient week for me to watch the dnc. my friend julie called me yesterday to tell me that david sedaris was covering some of it for npr. and then i read all about michelle obama's speech. and hillary's... my friend jen's blogging about it. damn...i am missing good stuff.

but i did see some of al gore tonight. how funny is that? we get home from soccer practice, turn on the television, and there is my crush from the last sixteen years...sigh. i love him. for some women it's movie stars or musicians... i'm surprised mine is a politician. but he inspires me, turns me on...all those things a crush should do. he's so smart. it used to piss me off that the press would always talk about how "stiff" he was. my mom used to say he had no personality. well, maybe he wasn't a party boy like our current chief...oh, i'm ashamed. that's so crappy. i do not mean to pick on w. he's almost finished and i'm trying really hard to love him like annie says jesus thinks we should...yes, even w.

the other day my mom told me obama supports abortion. i told her i wasn't that kind of catholic. then her husband told me that a woman who has a child on public assistance should be sterilized when that child is delivered to prevent her from having others on public assistance. i replied that my first son was born on medicaid. they also complained that obama (who they called "nut whack" the whole time...i think it's a compound word, but it's not in the dictionary...we'll see what spell check decides--spell check decided it was definitely not a compound word, fyi.) was going to raise the personal gains tax to pay off the national debt. my spouse and i DID NOT ask how they proposed the national debt be paid off. because there is really no point in it with them. i'm not meaning to pick on my mom or her spouse...i try to love them like i think jesus wants me to love them, too.

these are just the things running through my slightly preoccupied, slightly overburdened mind. i care passionately about politics. much the same way i passionately love art. but i don't always have time right now to read about these things as much as i'd like. i do read more about politics than i do art, but it often seems like never enough. we live in such a highly opinionated culture, it's often hard to discern truth. but as i was watching al gore tonight, i wondered if obama was his choice all along. and i figured out that it really doesn't matter. obama is the one running for what al gore feels is important in the way of the future of this country. and i think i have to agree. because if i were john mccain and campaigning as the candidate for the party that has been running this country the last eight years, and i wanted to be elected...i'd be the one using the campaign slogan "change"...but that's just my opinion.

peace out