vote!

i was walking back from class on this lustrous fall day, when i ran into the mailman who was coming to fetch the outgoing correspondence from the box in the lobby of the admin building. he was very tall in his mailman uniform, with minty breath and a white plastic US MAIL carton tucked under his arm.

oh man! he said. i was just listening to the news -- all this acorn stuff is crazy!

with insistent gestures and full scale animation he danced around the lobby and continued

if obama wins, oh man! the government will be so corrupt! it is already but you know how we got here, corruption! you know it will even be worse if that guy wins.

i thought we could end the conversation there, but he followed me inside the building and up the hall, with an evident need to visit the men's room.

i smiled and said well it certainly has been an interesting campaign!

he leaned towards me and went on

that obama, he's gonna cook the books. he has no experience. wouldn't make a good chauffer. but macain, now there's a hero who has served his country - that's the guy we oughta vote for.

well i told him, we'll see what america decides, won't we?

funny how people hear what they want to, and when they believe what they hear it is because they believed it to begin with. and what they are hearing defends, recommends, supports, and validates. people like that. feeling good about their beliefs.

but the point is, people are believing this campaign season. they are believing in change or believing in sameness and comfort, but people are listening and believing. there is energy instead of complacency. interest instead of futility and indifference.

people are believing. they are listening to their own hearts and searching for leadership in one party or another. or another.

we don't know exactly how it will all turn out

but at least

we are believing.