Dream Big

Inspirational song: 80 Days (Marillion)

I may be a pro at oversharing, but I've made a concerted effort to go easy on the politics in this space. Like religion, it's one of those things that shouldn't be pushed on others. I want people to come around to their own opinions on it. Or at least that has been my stance for years. Now I might have to reconsider my proselytizing options, as it were. I am two thirds of the way through focused training on how to recruit volunteers and be active in the campaign of the candidate of my choice. I might want to be a little more open with where I'm at in my head space, although I promise to come at it from a positive, forward-looking voice. I see enough negativity in daily life. This won't be an excuse to add to it. I have chosen Elizabeth Warren as a promise to the future, not a condemnation of the past.

I've never volunteered for a campaign before. Even though I was just a dependent at the time, while the Mr was on active duty, I felt like I should avoid actively campaigning for anyone. Then when we moved here, I joined the local party central committee, mostly by accident. (I went to a caucus, and our precinct had no one to lead the meeting. I raised my hand to volunteer for the one night, and I've been involved ever since.) I think I might have imagined it was hard to get involved at this sort of level. It seemed like one had to do more than just wander up and join.

I also never found anyone who spoke to me at such an elemental level before. I've had candidates I believed in, and some I was only slightly more than okay with. This is the first time I had passion for one person from moments after the primaries kicked off. I found someone who has done the homework. She has thought about all of the issues, and written down detailed plans for how to address them. She dreams big. She inspires me--Me, the ultimate fence-sitter. I always want to do things in a "medium" way, but medium won't work right now. The world is literally on fire, and we don't have time for slow, incremental policy improvements. I found my Lisa Simpson who can take it all on with confidence.

There's more training tomorrow. And then I have to buckle down and move faster. There are 80 days from now to Super Tuesday. The learning curve on this will be steep, but we have to race to the top of it to make a difference.