Love to Change the World

My friend says she's disappointed surprised I haven't talked politics more on my blog, given the arguments discussions we used to have back in Conservatism Central. I'm not in the mood for a rant (stay tuned, I'm sure I will be), so she'll have to keep waiting on that part, but she oughta get a laugh out of what I got us for Valentine's Day . . . OBAMAWEAR!

(Because, after all, he's stolen my bleeding heart.)

We're not really Valentine's Day/minor holiday people. Every day should be full of love and yada yada yada. Plus being lazy and cheap and busy. (And married. Or is this getting redundant?) But with our presidential primary so late as to hopefully be useless, I wanted to do something to show my new crush how I feel about him. And I figured hey, if I'm going to contribute, might as well get a shirt out of it, right?

I consulted Aaron and decided on this one and he told me he wanted this one and of course stickers. Unfortunately everything is backordered so who knows when we'll get anything. But I did put the sticker Artsy Betty gave me for Christmas on my van the other day, and just being so bold made this ObamaMama feel proud to be an American.

I've never given money to a politician before, although in college my roomie and I did go to a Bob Dole rally. I've never sported a bumper sticker or a shirt--not for lack of interest or passion about issues but because I've never felt strongly for someone. But this time is different, and I really feel like Obama is different--not perfect or a messiah but certainly, compared to what we've been settling for, more full of potential and more authentic and more able to make us want to be more of what America should and can be. We are so used to despairing of all we are not that we've forgotten how to even ask if we can be more. Finally we have someone encouraging us to dream big American dreams again and whispering the encouragement and trumpeting the power to reach for them: Yes we can.

These are not the issues reasons for my choice, of course. Those we can get into another day and are freely available on things called the Internets and newspapers for those who want to know (I don't get this whole "his speeches are vague" argument--they all talk vaguely at rallies, because people don't like policy lectures, but that doesn't mean they don't have plans). These are the heart reasons I feel I have to fight for him to have a chance to make a change--because if he never gets a chance, we'll never know what might have been possible. And I want to know I did my part to say yes to the possibilities.

So we didn't go out to dinner and we didn't buy overpriced flowers. I could go for some chocolate, but, endorphins notwithstanding, chocolate doesn't change a thing. This Valentine's Day, we put our love to work for change.

See, love really can change the world.

Yes we can.