yesterday was a hard day in many ways. i'm left puzzled and confused, while at the same time hopeful and encouraged by the NDP opposition and e may winning a seat. but mostly discouraged. i've spent a lot of time since yesterday thinking about scathing remarks i'd like to say on facebook, finger-pointing, and challenging issues i'd throw in the face of our harper government. it wasn't very satisfying though. bitterness and contempt never is. then the still-soft-voice started to be heard in my heart, and i remembered that my sharpe tongue would not make the world a better place. i want to be gracious, a soft word would open hearts and minds more effectively. i'm a hot-head of irish and scottish decent. i let passion and righteous-anger turn into flames that burn myself and others to the ground. i want to be different, so i can help my nation be different.
last night, alone on the couch, i watched the blue dragon take my nation. i watched, with my heart on the floor, a very close race in my riding. i'm thankful to say kingston and the islands did not fall.
i've been reading a really good book by cs lewis called "the problem of pain". yesterday i read a chapter all about love and the words keep surfacing in my mind. i remind myself that i will choose to love my enemies. in the book, jack talks about what it means to love something. he said we love inspite of the unlovely things, and yet love does not cease to want the removal of the unlovely. when we love something (as i will love my country) we still long for it to become more lovable. love does not accept the status quo, it longs for us to be all that we can be - free from the unlovely.
so i will pick my heart back off the floor... when i'm ready. and i will brace myself, to raise my voice, to write letters, to make signs, to love without giving up. and i will pray... for my county and my enemies.
who says i like right angles?
these are not my laws,
these are not my rules.
3 comments:
Good for you, Les. I really admire your response. I have to admit, I'm still feeling really angry and bitter at the 40% of Canadians who voted for the cons. I still feel like flinging angry words around. I need to take the advice I give to my kids all the time: The only thing that will change someone is love; no one will be changed by meanness or anger.
it's a lot easier said than done. or at least being loving means going slower instead of a quick knee-jerk reaction. i'm working on it. it's hard being a hot-head and all.
i don't really understand the whole majority with 40% thing. can you explain that to me?
It is because we don't have proportional representation. Only 40% of Canadians voted conservative, but they won in more ridings than any other party (I think about 60% of ridings). This happens because there is only one choice for people of a conservative bent (the conservative party) but for more liberal minded folks, there are a few options: Liberal, NDP, Green. So even though more people are voting against the conservatives, their votes are split up among more parties, meaning the cons take it in most ridings. And it's number of ridings that counts, not number of votes.
I think it is worth noting that we had a referendum a couple years ago about proportional representation and Canadians voted against it. I feel that most people probably didn't really know what they were voting for. This makes me incredibly angry.
I understand why everyone pushes people to vote so much, but I think it would be far better to push people to educate themselves and KNOW WHAT THEY ARE VOTING FOR! I have a friend who heard someone at her polling station say, "I'm just gonna vote for the one with the most signs." We would all be better off if that person (and others like him or her) didn't vote at all.
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