Resumes vs. Risk-taking

• Feast countdown = 49
• Current craving = Pumpkin bread that my roommate just baked
• Current craving distraction = Gum + the healthcare vote

It's a perfect stormy night backdrop for this post, as I listen to rain pounding and thunder shaking my little house in Midtown Atlanta, because I am about to reveal my latest life shift... (dramatic lightning strikes)... 

In two weeks, I'm picking up my life and moving to Rolla, Missouri to work on the Tommy Sowers congressional campaign.  The 8th district is about to become home.

Since graduating college two years ago, I've become increasingly hungry (bad word choice) for work where I can serve the public and see the results of my efforts.  I have to stop myself and ask, what are you working toward -- a pretty resume or a meaningful life?  What will you look back on as success?  What is worth the daily struggle?  Because otherwise, I am likely to fall into the easy pattern of living for comfort, for prestige and awards, and for nods of approval at family gatherings and dinner parties.  In the words of Abraham Lincoln, and recently quoted by President Obama:

"I'm not bound to succeed, but I'm bound to live up to what light I have."

While I don't equate my own small actions with these two great men, I still view this adventure as a course correction toward that same end.  I will embark on a seven-month journey to elect an incredible leader to office -- someone, I believe, who will take on the plights of one of the poorest areas in the U.S. and fight for their voice and well-being.  I relish the chance to talk with these local folks about their concerns and values.  I look forward to moments of discomfort when I meet people very different from myself and who view the world at another angle, because it will challenge me and expand my understanding of this country.  

This whole campaign will expand my understanding of the political process, where ideology meets polling games and sound bites.  The grittiness of it will surely become tiresome, but I treasure it all the same when I look around the world at countries like Somalia and Myanmar, where government elections are a ruse and leaders serve their own interests unabashedly.  Ours is a messy process, but it ultimately empowers people who seek out the truth.  I look forward to the day when the world's most forgotten and oppressed can make their leaders work for them.  (Women of the world, take heart.)

In similarly rambling fashion, I can't help but revert to cheesy symbolism at this last moment -- I just looked out my window to find the storm subside into a fully arched rainbow.  I don't know the last time when I saw a rainbow touch down on both sides like that.  It reminds me of promises, of hope, that good often emerges when we least expect it, and that the St. Louis Arch is calling my name :)  I am ready to take the risk for a more difficult and more fulfilling ride.