September 5, 2004

• Connecting the Dots

  
  

  I'm praying for the health of our former President.  I think it's no secret to those of you who've been reading my site for the past three years that I lean toward the liberal side of the political fence.  When I took an internet quiz to determine my political position, it put me just slightly more toward the center then Ghandi.  (I wonder, before internet quizzes how I ever had any self-awareness at all ...)

  
  

  I've heard it said that statistically speaking there are no more than two people between you and any other person in the United States.  You pick a person, any person, and you probably know someone, who knows someone, who knows that person. 

  
  

  I grew up in Arkansas.  I know a great many people there still.  Some of those people know the Clintons very well.  So see, if you were wondering whether you had a connection to them well, I'm one away from you, and there is at most one other person between me and them.  (I have met them both in person on more than one occasion, but obviously we aren't close friends.  And no, he didn't make a pass at me.  )  My friend, Mary, has also met the Clintons in a social setting and it was a lot of fun when we realized this and were able to compare impressions.

  
  

  Today, I had lunch with a man who has a weekly standing phone conference with the White House.  He doesn't speak to the President every week, but President Bush calls him by first name.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago, he's one of the men who may make the difference in the coming election. 

  
  

  Isn't that just interesting?  It makes me wonder who you know.  How are we all connected?  And it makes me realize that we aren't simply random dots.  We are part of a pattern that makes sense from some perspective that's broader than I can quite grasp. 

  
  

  And just in case you're wondering if I've tipped my hand today ... let me go all the way. I registered Libertarian when I moved to Indiana.  Before that I was an Independent.  And now, I'm trying to decide what I should do about voter registration in Colorado.  I am persuaded by Yorel's argument that registering as anything other than one of the two major parties simply causes my vote not to count.  But oh, I do despise the things I see the major parties doing.  (I'd probably despise the Libertarians if they were big enough and got enough exposure for me to see their warts as well as I can see the others.  But I  appreciate their political philosophy better than that of the other two parties.)

  
  

  I believe it's my duty to research issues, listen to candidates and cast my vote according to the dictates of my understanding and my conscience.  I'll be there in November, part of a great pattern of dots that may be better explained by chaos theory than any other formula, but still connected to all you other dots. 

  • 6:22 pm
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