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16/11: Green bean blues
Tonight we sit in the living room as gasps, pleads, and bouts of agony issue out of the dining room. Elizabeth is faced with the most momentous challenge of her life; four green beans. There were only four placed on her plate, and she sits at the table alone, choking down those green beans. Now she joins us, after washing them down. It took her just two minutes of eating, after an hour of anguished contemplation. Lizzie is not one to hold a grudge, as soon as she has joined us on the couch, and is looking at the illustrations of mermaids her mom was looking at (the reason for her gulping them down) the green beans are forgotten. She is smiling, and she has moved on to a brownie there seems to b plenty of space in her belly for that.
04/11: Voting - 2008
For the first time in my life I waited to vote there was one person in front of me. Usually all I have to do is scrawl my name and walk right into the voting booth. But today, a steady stream of voters entered the Town Hall. Usually the space is used by girl scouts and wedding parties a corner of he building is set aside for a food shelf. Three voting booths were standing in the hall today - baby blue with plaid polyester curtains ready to fold you in as you draw across the lever. But lurking in the corner stood the future a black touch screen voting machine this year waiting in reserve to help the handicapped. Next election they will take over entirely. No plaid curtain, no little snap-down tabs, no satisfying mechanical crunch as you pull the lever across. Today I brought the girls into the voting both with me, any way you look at it its a momentous occasion, one for them to remember. No longer will the United States pay lip service to the concept of anyone born into our country can do anything, be anyone even president, vice president. At the end of the day a woman or an African American will be heading to the White House. Today I am proud to be an American. I show the girls the levers talk about how I am voting and why they help click them down. I take a deep breath, and pull the lever and we emerge back into the world again.It is festive at the polls, there is a laughing and chatting, lot of familiar faces. There are suits and ties, boots and mud splattered jeans. Our northern county is heavily divided, probably leans toward the redder shade of purple. But despite political persuasions there is a palpable optimism here. A huge stained American flag droops languidly from the wall, Washington and Lincoln look out from dusty frames, taking it all in. The world is changing.
