Holy Schmokes!

Gadzooks!

One week from Tuesday (more or less 'today') three local Salem City Council seats will be filled via election with three people. I hope to be one of them.

Yeah, I know something like that is off most people's "to do" list. It's like going out of your way to hit your thumb with the hammer. I'm not a butt-kisser politician, or someone motivated to close the ozone hole by being kind to pinecones-- but I do have a thought or two that could either help the City Council noodle things out better. That or I've got enough of a stubborn streak to just drag my feet when things are just plain 'ol going the wrong way. Common sense means heel tracks left all over the floor.

Service-- including public service-- is me. I like people and I get along with most everybody. And I think the city population will like that I'm pretty frugal when it comes to money. For example, I haven't spent one cent on political flag-waving via placards, signs, banners, posts, rope, fliers, buttons, straw hats, heated socks, or wash-off tattoos either. Let them eat cake, I say, or remember the Alamo or something like that. Keep your money and buy more ice cream to raise the GNP.

Last election I got 22 votes. (Thank you mom.) Can't wait to see how I do in the polls this time around.

Cheers!
E-LectabLee yours

Heartfelt Gratitude

I've been extraordinarily fortunate this past week to be awash in love.

I suppose I find it noteworthy in public mention first because love is such a rare and delicate treasure, and second, because I believe expressing gratitude to God is a condition of deeper fondness and Christlike attributes. I developed a keener understanding during the last decade in inexpressibly hard times, seemingly independent of cause and effect. "Pain engraves a deeper memory." (Anne Sexton, OMNI, May 1985)

So while you might not find it strange to hear me vocalize (and blog) my deep gratitude for the obvious-- family members serving unselfishly, children who love and grandchildren who innocently smile-- you would then hear me express an equivalent and deep thankfulness for coworkers and clients, people who share their instruction and insights, people who simply call to say hello, and Church leaders in quiet service... even for those over whom they have no responsibility to so serve. You know who you are-- and to you I express love.

Thanksgiving this year marks new beginnings for me. I know it will be the first time in two decades I find myself truly thankful. Year after year all color remained bleached from of my world, and I marveled how "goodly" people delighted in taking advantage of my time, my efforts, my skills, and my offerings to them. I watched them grab and go.

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." (George Washington Carver)

Cheers!