258 candles-days 39-48 (maybe we are not so different from the leaves)

May I admit this to you? I have been feeling overwhelmed lately. It isn't the paucity of good news deserving to be lit up. No, if anything I am surprised by the amount of things happening in this world, and I emphasize it is in the world and not just the US, that is worth celebrating and the opportunity to make others aware of it is sometimes itself a tidal wave that becomes a case of "this one" or "this one". 

No, what is overwhelming me, and depressing me in the same instant, is the number of my friends who are finding themselves caught up in the intricate folds of partisanship and frustration and anger, aligning themselves with one worthwhile candidate over another, one goal over another, one outcome over another, that seems to carry with it the taint that if this one is good, the other must be, if not outright evil, then at least not as important. I am sick to death watching friends match "my cause beats yours."

So I have found myself unwilling to come here, perhaps thinking my attempts are worthless themselves because my friends, as the days dwindle, scream at one another "Your candidate/cause/concern puts me at risk!" In my imagination I find myself playing a version of "I have only a dollar, who deserves it more?" Bernie or Hillary? Black Lives Matter or Equality North Carolina? My friends seem under the impression that loyalty to one cancels out, or at worst, makes a villain of the other.

It is in this frame of mind that I find myself needing to slow down and heed the words of Clint Smith.