Life Updates and Realizations #1

I established this blog about 6 months ago, when I came back to Lake Lure for my annual Christmas visit. Here I am, about 6 months later, writing my third post since Christmas. It is interesting how these homecomings often become times of catharsis in my life, prompting me to write down my feelings and experiences. I think that these trips allow me to sort me out. I have realizations, I make connections, I cry...a lot. Somehow I come out of these visits a little less homesick and a little more aware, a little more tolerant and forgiving of myself while at the same time feeling like I have been shot out of a canon that hasn't been operated for years. With rust on the sides and a grinding of unused steal, I maintain a bumpy, slow launch. I eventually manage to complete the mission and land with an explosion (yet again) in California.

One recent positive explosion in my life is that I have obtained what could possibly be the job of my dreams. I am working for a small private school in Oakland as a teachers aid and a dance teacher. Whammo! Jackpot!

My biggest challenge right now is making income until the end of August as I have successfully and admittedly with relief quit my job as a barista and as a canvasser for the Democratic National Committee.

I will now tell you what I FELT as a canvasser for the DNC.

1. I was campaigning for a party that I did not declare my full allegiance to-therefore feeling like a hypocrite.

2.I hate people knocking on my door asking for money. I feel like it is an invasion of my privacy and sacred space-therefore feeling like a hypocrite.

3.Realizing that my income was essentially commission based. The more money that I raised, the better I got paid. (I hate the fact that the only way one can win an election in this country is through big money.)

4.I do not believe that grassroots organizing means knocking on doors chiefly to raise campaign funds for the DNC. The definition of grassroots is as follows: " the very foundation or source or the basic level of society or of an organization especially as viewed in relation to higher or more centralized positions of power" (courtesy Merriam-Webster dictionary)

While campaigning at the "foundation of society" is necessary, I believe that there are still, better, less invasive ways to get the public involved in a campaign. I feel as though the attitude of the canvasser is that money is the only way to win the White house. I disagree, however naive that may be.

Money can only talk for so long. Eventually the people that are making the money have to start talking, yelling, and hey, even voting.