An open letter to the undecided......

To Whom It May Concern:

Well,  here I go, breaking my promise to not pull politics into my blog. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, in this ever more and more polarized world, I truly believe it is just as difficult to change someone's political beliefs as it is to change someone's religious beliefs, so I never even try. That being said, I feel like I need to do something...

Politics today is an entirely new animal. You are able to feed your personal beliefs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if you want. You can find blogs, websites, tv stations and articles to back-up every belief you have. Whether or not it is accurate, you can find an article to back up your "beliefs." I think much of politics is honestly opinion sold as "facts." There are some things, clearly, that we have some historical perspective on (what works and what does not), some that IS scientific, but much of politics is kind of about your own philosophy and beliefs about how people should function and ultimately what role religion and the government should play in shaping how people are able to function. Let's face it, that is really what everything comes down to, the official role of religion and the role of government.

Thank you, Mr. President....

I feel like this letter could probably be written to most Presidents for one reason or another by somebody at some point in time in their life. I feel like you write a letter to your President when you are in first grade, when the President is pretty much the cooleest person ever. I feel like you then maybe write a letter to the President when you are in high school and you first start to understand the world, our country and your place in it. I feel like the only other time you may write a letter to the President is if you are struggling or perhaps really trying to voice a concern or an idea you may have.

I was truly fascinated by the President growing up. I didn't totally understand the three branches of government and never fully understood how all three "worked" together, but I remember the President was an exciting concept to me. It sounded very sexy when I was little. How amazing and exciting to have so much power and to get to make decisions and "rule" the world. Granted, this was all totally naive and from a little kids perspective.

Rootstrikers

Part of me hates that I find myself writing a blog while on vacation, but I guess it goes to show that I find this to be important enough to brain dump as quickly as possible. Not only am I on vacation, but this is my last night here in Hampton Beach, NH.

I have alluded to Lawrence Lessig in previous blogs. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Lessig, I highly suggest you look him up. An Intellectual Property lawyer and professor, by trade, turned into a political activist I highly admire. I was lucky enough to see him speak at All Souls last year and have been a witness to the adorableness of watching Greg look up to him for years.

Mr. Lessig is most recently known for his stance on money in politics. More specifically, for his arguments for the need to get money 100% out of politics, and elections more specifically. There are numerous lectures on-line  you can watch to learn more about Mr. Lessig, his stance and his Rootstriker mentality http://www.rootstrikers.org.

Basically the thought is that until you find the root of any problem and are able to strike down the problem at its root cause, it will continue to be a problem. I feel like there are so many major issues in the world we are all afraid or unwilling to discuss. We don't take the time to think about what the root cause of any problem is, so we try and attack the peripheral issues, never ever solving the root issue.  Mr. Lessig (and I) believe that with all of the corruption in politics, the low levels of confidence in congress, the stalemate that Washington has currently perfected, the lackluster amount of those who vote in elections (after so many fought and died for the right to vote), the root problem to all of this in money in elections and money in politics. People feel like their vote doesn't matter and won't make a difference because they know that in the end, big money usually wins.

My "religion"

Well, I guess here goes any chance I have for being future President of the United States, or any elected office for that matter.

So I have to be honest here, this is the blog post that brings the most anxiety. This anxiety stems from a few places, no doubt a large portion coming from that Catholic guilt I perfected as a child.

I think I should say upfront, that I am not intending to offend or claiming to be "correct" in anything that I state. I think that is actually one of the biggest challenges with religion, everyone thinks and feels that they are "correct." How can everyone be "correct"? You believe what you believe, that is all you can say, really. Your beliefs work for you and in that way, they are correct. As in you have correctly found what works for you. That is all I am doing here, I am stating that I have correctly found what works for me, and me alone.  I am making no claims to be "right." I am continuing to use this blog as an exercise to learn about myself and discover my passion. Part of this journey, has been thinking more about what I believe about life and in general.

Enough

Enough, what does enough mean to you? I honestly find a real danger in this. I have been delaying this blog post mainly because I cannot seem to find the quote I really wanted to highlight. I found a few good ones to string within the post and am hopefully perhaps I will come across it at some point in time.

My blog topics often come to me out of nowhere. Sometimes it is when I see an injustice, sometimes it is when a friend or co-workers happens to say something that really captures my interest, sometimes it  is when I see a memorable or inspirational story or quote, and yes, sometimes it comes to me at 4:00 a.m. 

I often think about the word "enough" and what is fosters inside of me when I say it and hear it. I feel like it is utilized in a multitude of ways, often quantifiable, expressing contentment, frustration or perhaps even longing. Often associated with what you view to be what are entitled to and how you measure up to your desires: do you have enough food, enough clothes, enough money, enough friends, enough children, enough animals, enough politics, enough education, etc. In this way it is refereing to quanitiy, you have "enough" of something to fill whatever void or quota you had or perhaps whatever you feel you should be entitled to. Or, more commonly, you don't have enough, it is just never enough...