I haven't posted in quite a while. I have been insanely busy, as usual, and blogging tends to be the last thing on my agenda. However, today I've felt compelled to write. Next week this time I will have finished my last requirements for my degree. My portfolio will be finished (let's hope) and reviewed, and graduation will be rapidly approaching. This time next week I'll be moving out of this apartment I've lived in for the past two years, and I'll be trying to figure out what the next step will be. As always, everything's changing. How ironic.
Tonight I spent some time with friends in East Nashville, chatting about Proverbs, watching The Office, and generally just being real friends. In the course of our discussion which centered around the theme of righteousness in Proverbs (of all things), I became discouraged and yet hopeful at the same time. First off, I truly believe that Christianity proclaims a message of hope, a hope that God can bring great good out of evil, that He creates life out of death, that He has the power to heal our broken world and our broken selves. However, that is so hard to see. Our world is not fixed, and I know that change does begin in us, in our lives right here and now. But, I desire and believe that change on a grander scale must also be possible.
This all segues into the fact that much of my free time centers around politics and political discourse, especially since it's election season. I was raised to be a good American citizen, informed and aware, opinionated and mostly fair. And I was also raised with a sense of idealism and a feeling that politics matters, that who we as a people elect actually makes a difference.
My mom calls politics our family hobby. Some people have bowling (not the Obamas, of course) and other people have hunting and drinking (like Hillary, obviously), but we have politics. If you want labels, which it seems everyone does, my parents could be pinned as compassionate conservatives, leaning mostly toward the compassionate side of things. My parents are pro-life, and they also support the environment. We recycled before it was even popular. My dad is a scientist by nature yet he is also a strong Christian. My mom used to be a social worker, working with those less fortunate than herself, and she has also traditionally voted conservatively. My parents are some of the most decent, kind-hearted, honest, hard working, educated, and wonderful people I've ever known, and they have raised their children to have a strong sense of self as well as a deep seated compassion for others and a desire to give back to our world. So, out of all of this, I emerge.
The past several weeks have discouraged me greatly, as I watch the pundits fight back and forth over what seems to me so obvious. Most people who know me know that I support Barack Obama and want with all my heart for him to be the next President of these United States of America. I see in him not only the hope that he proclaims but also the ability to create fundamental change in Washington. Like my parents, Obama believes in the power of working together, finding common ground, and seeing the good in people. He is idealistic yet not lost in the clouds. He cares so much about his ideals that he desires to make them a reality, and he has developed a plan to make that happen, a plan that includes the American people in the process and denies the powers of the lobbyists in Washington who often stand for corporate greed.
This week as I watched the Reverend Wright controversy spill over into the media again, I felt a deep sense of sadness. First, I felt the anger over people's ability to twist and defile the goodness that Obama stands for. If they would even listen to the words he says with any sense of real honesty, there is no way that they could call him pandering or dishonest. Yet, that is exactly what people are saying. I watched Obama's press conference about this issue, and all I could feel was a great sense of sadness for Obama and his family over the schism between him and his longtime friend. I don't understand how people cannot have compassion and recognize that they too may have acted and reacted in a similar manner.
All this to say this: Tonight as I sat in a living room with my friends, I was reminded of how far we are from experiencing that change and hope in our society. Yet, at the same time I was able to recognize what Barack Obama often recalls: We all have similar hopes and dreams, and those hopes and dreams are not unfounded. I have faith, and I pray for greater peace, greater joy, greater hope.
Proverbs 10:28 "The hope of the righteous is gladness..."
