Voting for That One

Ever since I got sick a few weeks ago, I have been in a funk. Not an out and out depression, just a blue time. Part of this is due to the fact that we are nearing the holiday season and since we moved to Florida this is not a particularly happy time for me. December is still fine. We are so busy with concerts and events and church activities that we don't have time to consider much else. And, we always go "home" for Christmas. But Thanksgiving comes so close to December that there is really no way for us to make another trip in that short of a time. We have begun to do things on our own, and the first year we were here people invited us over, but it was not the same. The food was different than our traditional fare, and so we have bowed out gracefully ever since. This year it looks like we are going to visit Atlanta for the Thanksgiving holiday. A new King Tut exhibit opens there next month and we thought that would be interesting and a diversion right before the Christmas season begins.

Confession 1: I early voted last Thursday. I stood in a relatively short line and was finished in less than 20 minutes due to the fact that I had already decided who to vote for, wrote down my votes on a post-it note, and just went in and filled in the ovals. Florida's governor extended early voting hours this week because of the great turn out. Who knows what that means. Everyone on TV says it means something else. I posted that I had early voted on my Facebook page and it started a little uproar. I said "Yippee for Democracy" and several people decided they needed to make sure I had voted the right way or just make a joke. I enjoyed the jokes. As if voting for "that one" was somehow completely inappropriate. I also read on a "friend's" profile just last night that anyone who voted for Obama must be an idiot. I have heard so many negative things about the man this week that I want to throw up. I am so ready for this to be over. I recognize that the divisiveness will not go away any time soon, but at least the race will be over.

I have heard comments like "We are giving our country away." It reminds me of the 1992 race when Clinton won and the evangelical world was all in an uproar. Our country was somehow irredeemable. It seems to me that we also went into a period of great growth and reevaluation within the conservative movement in general and with the religious branch of that movement in particular. So, it may be that we will see some better things come out of the church if we will be willing to put politics aside and begin to care about what is most important for the church to care for--people, seeing Christ's kingdom built in this world, and preparing disciplined spiritual warriors. So, just maybe, the church is about to experience something wonderful no matter who wins the election. And, if the future follows history's model, an Obama presidency and a Democratic Congress will likely lead to a Republican majority in 2010. So, give it a couple of years and then let's talk. Unless, of course, he is the Antichrist. But we will likely know if 3.5 years or so. Unless, we are believers in a pre-tribulation rapture, then the Christians won't be here much longer, say only until January 19, 2009. (This is not a prediction, this is sarcasm and should be read as such.)

Confession 2: I went to see High School Musical 3 last Friday with the family. I never go to the movies. I don't care to be with other people that much, but I admit I wanted to see the singing and the dancing. It was a fine little movie and my children loved it. I think it is interesting how many musicals there have been made into movies lately. It begins to make me wonder if Hollywood knows we are in for a recession. Think about the number of musicals made during the 1930s. There was a reason for this: no one wanted to think about real life, they wanted to escape it. Personally, I like the HSM movies, but since I have had children I have joined the cult of Disney, so my reviews may be tainted.

Confession 3: I had the weirdest conversation this past week. A woman who is really involved at my church came into my office to talk about some things and noticed one of my diplomas on the wall. She commented that it was from Oklahoma and mentioned that she had lived in Oklahoma several years ago when she first got married. It ended up she worked at Quail Springs Mall at John A. Brown (a store which has not existed since about 1986) and lived near the mall and went to the same United Methodist church that my grandparents attended. It was surreal and brought back a lot of memories for me.

It is funny, but since I moved to Florida my memories of Oklahoma have gotten better. Maybe living in Texas was part of the problem since Texans do not care much for Oklahoma. It could also be that over the last few months I have been put in contact with several old friends from Oklahoma, many of which I have not seen or spoken to in MANY years. It has helped me to put a gentler spin on my memories. I am beginning to remember more of the positive things, which is a new trick for me. I have come to understand my father's fascination with his hometown a little better. He and my mother grew up in a place that for him was idyllic (I don't know that I would go so far as to say my childhood was idyllic, but go with me on this one) and he always enjoyed going back to visit, even though the town had just about dried up by the 1980s. He would have never moved back, but it was an idea I think he probably entertained at some point, maybe just out of nostalgia.

I have no desire whatsoever to move back to Oklahoma any time ever, but at least I have begun to think more positively of my growing up there. And that is not to say that things were unduly difficult for me while I was growing up, not any more than any adolescent I suppose. But I feel there is something to be said (whether subconsciously or otherwise) for how little contact I have had with most of the people I grew up with. Maybe most people grow up, move away and go on with their lives. I know that almost immediately after I graduated from high school, I lost track of most of my senior class (as most people tend to do), but I think the difference is that many of us had been together for many years in a very contained environment. Maybe that made it all the more profound and significant for me to relinquish that lifeline so quickly after having it for so long. But that has been the pattern for my life since then, giving up those things that I thought were precious for something better but scarier.

[Okay, I admit that I was in a funk when I saw High School Musical and with that surreal conversation about Oklahoma City following so closely after seeing it (and a bit of high school-like intrigue at the community college last week), these were my thoughts. I am insane.]

Peace.