zzy and I voted according to our Edges and Boundaries, How about You?

Edges and Boundaries of us all

Edges and Boundaries

This past week we set some political edges and boundaries.

Our political space 'in the world' is defined by so many factors. We even need to define, before we start to consider anything else, what do we mean by 'in the world'. For some of us, it is quite simple to define 'in the world'. As a child, when my mother exclaimed, "What in the world is happening?, or What in the world are you doing, or were you thinking?", I would answer about what I had just done, hadn't done, or made myself ready to respond about a recent event. Was this 'household politics'? I think so.

The older I got, the wider the 'world' 'grew'. Now it included the stars, the whole planet, and all the living organisms seen and unseen existing along with me. So our horizons expand with our awareness of what is 'out there'. All of 'that' becomes, in some sort of way, 'the world'. In many ways there is a sort of politic going on even in the farthest reaches. At home, when mulling over my mother's exclamation, I came to understand that her reference also included a 'world of ideas, actions'. A sort of behavioral 'world' which I had a long way ahead of me to comprehend and appreciate fully. When I stepped beyond her 'take' on 'the world', I learned, I could experience some sort of chastisement or 'consequence' that would encourage me to repeat an action or an utterance or not. After a while, my 'local world' became a comfort zone in which I knew my edges and boundaries and lived in a wide margin of peacefulness. The outer political edges were still waiting for me to discover.

Surprisingly, while the edges and boundaries of ' local world' became more and more clearly defined, 'What in the world' expanded like a mushroom since learning I could sneeze here, and someone in California might catch my cold. If 'my politician' decided it was in 'my interest' to make a war, he set off explosives that shattered families several thousand miles away in a matter of a few seconds. That was why it was a good thing I got an early solid 'basic training' within my 'first local world'. It helped me be able to assess how to respond to the kaleidoscope of options on the road ahead.

Making common sense choices is so much easier for 'teenage pullet' Izzy-the-Wise, my little bantie: in 'her 'world' she has a range of yard, run, and coop. She is established in the flock pecking order and she reminds her 'flocksisters' she has status and ambition beyond her size limit, but not too far beyond it. She can look me in the eye unblinkingly and exude confidence I envy. She avoids danger, she chooses when to follow the flock and when to chill out on her own. Her menu is of her choosing since i give her options. While events happening in other yards, other 'hoods', and 'universes' may have some repercussions for her, she is not aware of those events or repercussions, except she watches out for hawks and scary creatures. Often, I long for that simplicity of mind and awareness. Izzy and her sisters 'vote' , though. They size each other up and pick a leader and a sister who is stuck in 'last place'. They have also voted about me, they will come running when they know I'm around. Good politics on their part. Can I do the same?

The manner in which we humans develop our political edges and boundaries seems simple enough, but peeling back the layers of our 'political world',just one of the sorts of 'worlds' we operate in, we discover great complexities. When we 'vote' we affect the fate of a much larger 'flock'. We even affect the 'whole world' dramatically if we choose not to vote (as we let others choose for us, we choose to let go of our citizenship and permit others to make whatever choices they wish even if they are terrible choices).

Discovering the power of the vote stunned me one day. It happened when I realized that by choosing a candidate I also chose someone who had the power to change the fate of large numbers of people, creatures, organisms. My 'world'! Our world. What immense power! Lucky little Izzy doesn't have to worry about that, but I do, we all do! So even when I don't feel like it, I always try to figure out who will be the wisest and best amongst the 'flock' of candidates and make the choices responsibility calls me to make. I hope you join me and take part in this process. It is a labor of love we owe each other. So happy we can do this as our contribution to our 'community', our 'world', Izzy's world!

Hopefully, you voted in the Wisconsin primary yesterday. I promise you I did. Now we are in the last stretch of this mid-term election cycle. Let's all take time to respect ourselves, our 'jobs as citizens' with all our similarities and differences, dialog about issues and candidates in a healthy interchange, Ignore the ugly lie-slinging, and calmly consider what is best for our state, 'our world'. Long-range and in the moment. Remember to make kind and decent choices. Apply the 'Golden Rule' standard. That will make us stronger and healthier. If you choose to vote, I thank you and so does Izzy-the-Wise.