Multiconstruct

I wrote a post yesterday and didn’t post it. Am I self censoring now that I am semi-officially pursuing a seat on the Columbia City Council. No, of course not. I am self censoring for quality. I want to have an interesting blog and I wrote a brief happenings of the day, which was kind of charming I think and  then launched into laying out a platform. Getting messaged by the Trib asking for a call when I file my papers generated some pressure to get organized about my political agenda. I had dashed off a Facebook comment on that and used it as an outline. It was crappy and boring and hard to write and not up to what I want to do with the blog.

I get a lot of compliments on the style. I want it to just flow. I want my life to be like that to [too?]. Except for the number those words have stymied me my whole life except for brief periods when it just seems so obvious I’ve  wondered how I’ve spent most of my life not knowing.

So what’s been going on. Pretty busy. Yesterday was my late night so I ran some errands in the morning. I sent back all the stuff I accidentally carried away from Michigan and also accrued my first campaign expense by getting some petitions copied in case I get some help on the signature gathering. That is going well and I am over half way to my 75 and I feel like the quality is good.

I tried a little Wednesday morning but a block of Garth showed me why canvassing is done in the evenings and weekends. A block of nobody homes and one wild eyed older woman barely holding a pit bull back shouting some unintelligible name was not home. Getting off at 8, well if I was doing it for a living I would go out until 9:00, later if I was in the flow or desperate. As a hobbyist I like the 5:30-8:00. Even moving towards 8 it feels late. Certainly couldn’t raise the gumption to go out and do it after a long day of work.

Today I met with some folks after work and had dinner at Agave. It was a pretty free form question and answer about the recent city controversies. I was familiar with all of them so reading the paper every day since I moved here has been a good thing. Not counting the opinions of the guy from the Third Ward and the Canadian I won the support of 2 out of 3. It would have been a feat but doable to have caught all three and I learned a lot in the exchange.

Keeping it free form and just try to answer the questions seems like might be a better way then to elucidate talking points and try to work them in. I know I’m sick of the worst excesses of that mentality and maybe being its antithesis is a strength. Its hard for me to want to be political.

I worked on a political campaign and got very turned off by politics. I didn’t like only telling the piece of the truth that helped you win. I didn’t like that narrow focus of a political win and the gamesmanship of it just felt wrong and dirty. I won’t use people or even look at everyone from the lens of what can they do for me.

After dinner I gathered more signatures. Nothing that funny. Leslie Lane is full of characters. I see how I ended up here, I fit right in. Most folks are real nice. The scared ones though, the ones who won’t come to their door, the one who locked their car when they saw me walking up the street, it really breaks my heart. I wish I had a way to tell them there is no need for fear, we can trust each other, we’re all in this together.