I guess he wanted to impart some wisdom for my day.
"Vote..." he paused, searching for an adverb
appropriate to the action of voting. "Vote hard." He grinned, then walked out the door to his frosty morning commute of two minutes.
Hard? Vote hard? I was planning on voting anyway, but how do I vote hard?
Maybe he realizes how difficult it is to manage the polls
with children in tow. I pretend that it
is a learning opportunity. For the
people watching, anyway.
So [most of] the children and I went to cast my ballet at the local K. of C. hall, but I stopped just in time and cast my ballot instead. That would have been awkward had I arrived in a tutu, not remembering the difference one vowel can make.
It turned out that it wasn't hard to vote, I missed the rush
and only met relatives. [Small town.] My only concern was
keeping my second child from reading my selections aloud in his extremely loud
stage whisper.
You know what I love about voting? The feeling of control.
Plus, I've always been a sucker for stickers. The stickers last longer, but
both are quite intoxicating for a brief moment.
Who doesn't love to be in control? Even if it is just control over one
tiny vote.
I am not in control of much these days, which is an
unsettling truth. I was hoping that
homeschooling would be a minor lifestyle change for us, but it is major. And really, although I get to pick out the
curriculum, set the schedule, plan and teach the lessons, (as well as serve the
lunch!) I'm finding that I really am not in control. Not in control of my children, not in control
of the weather, not in control of... well, anything beyond my own thoughts and
emotions.
Ok. I'm not in control of my thoughts and emotions much
either. ;)
Folks, I'm learning to write in pencil when I've always
preferred ink. There is something so
permanent, so authoritarian about ink. But
scratch-out marks are so much more distracting and ugly than eraser smudges.
There's something profound about this, and I ruminate over
my writing instrument, my planning tool.
In every situation, I continue to plan, choose, decide. But, I'm trying to decide in pencil rather
than pen. Ultimately, I don't wield any
control and I had better keep myself flexible in my plans, choices and
decisions. I'm casting a vote, but God
picks the winner.
