I called my grandmother this morning. We used to be really, really close. I would go and see her two or three times a week when we lived in the city and then at least once after we moved to the country and started the farm. OK, we don't have a farm but those of you city folk may think of countries that way. Then I got pregnant and I saw her less and less the bigger and bigger I got. Since the twins were born I may have seen her a dozen times. This makes me very sad.
So I called her this morning to see if she would like to come over tomorrow, I think that would be easier than the alternatives. She was delighted and in a talkative mood. Somehow or another we got on the topic of Campaign T-shirts. See here in Virginia you are not allowed to wear campaign t-shirts to the polls and will be sent away if you do. She said she couldn't wait until the election was over, I told her I concur. I would have left it at that but she went on to say that she is tired of all the negative comments and ads, especially those by "John". She said it like a grandmother, like she knew him personally and was disappointed in him. She told me that she thinks its sad that the campaigns use faults and harsh comments to sway the vote, that instead of focusing on thier own strengths they attack the shortcomings of their opponent.
I asked her is she was going to vote, she said probably not. I asked if she was registered, that I would take her to the polls if she needed me to. She told me that she wasn't registered to vote. That she has never registered, never voted. That made me sad on multiple fronts but one of those was that I should have asked prior to the 6th. It's too late now. She told me that she really disliked Palin, and didn't understand why she was choosen and then she apologized and said "I'm sorry, you're probably voting for McCain." This struck me as funny, that not only does my grandmother have no idea who I am voting for (or I her, I would have always pictured her as a McCain supporter, but I don't know why) but she apologized that she may have offended me. Where are these courtesies in the general election? Nonexistent? She went on to say, "I was always told not to talk politics and religion. No one wants to have conversations about that." This is why she may have thought I was voting for John, I'm not sure. But it's true we have never talked politics or religion, even though we are very close.
She said "May the best man win, who ever that may be" and we moved on to other topics like the state of the economy.
I wish that more conversation involving politics and religion could go that smoothly, that people didn't intrepret my beliefs and opinions to be a challenge to thier own. I wish that people were really as open minded as they claimed. I wish that people really wanted to come together and work on issues as a joint effort. I wish that I could go on and on about the election on my own blog without the fear of hurting someones feelings or turning them off. I wish it was the 7th of November already.
