Thoughts of the Day, March 1, 2016

Hello Friends and Family,

My apologies for the lack of posts this morning.  Today was a busy day!  I'll leave with just a few thoughts for the day.  The Thought of the Day will be a recurring feature of this blog.  It may be a few quotes or a small digression on an activity I partook in.  It may often be a seed to a  future post that may not have it's full flesh currently.  Here goes:

"The original will be pushed to the peripheral"

The most creative, eccentric, and inventive are often socially isolated.  They frequently are picked on and made fun of.  They often lack friends and strong bonds with others.  They may end up being avant-guarde, their work appreciated years later, or they will work assiduously to bring the periphery into the world's tunnel vision

Another reality is that originality is intrinsically related to an ability to see at a periphery.  It's the dare to try new solutions to problems, to traverse where other intellects deemed off the grounds of respectability.  It's seeing beyond the edges and far too often, it is punished

A Few Thoughts On Phonebanking

If you've never phone banked before, it's something you ought to try at least a few times.  The phonebook is largely utilized in political campaigns, but it is also seen in anything that requires volunteers or some kind of attendance.  It's simple: a list of calls or contacts is set up and a group of people is delegated to call and ask them to commit to a vote, event, volunteering, etc.

I phone banked for Bernie Sanders tonight in the midst of his Super Tuesday losses.  It can be both a humbling experience and one to develop great patience:

• You'll have to be very comfortable with being told no, people immediately refusing your call (usually on dubious grounds), even disparaging your ideas or candidate.  You need to be patient and practice equanimity when this happens, or else you will never get through the calls with any level of sanity
• There is a twofold frustration and optimism, depending on how you normally assess things.  You will see countless calls go unanswered.  Countless people "not home" in the sense that they just don't want to talk when they hear of your campaign.  People refusing to talk and characterizing a phone call about voting as "soliciting", not civiv engagement.  On one hand, this shows just how little many care about their vital governing bodies, how detached they are from things that affect them on such massive levels.  However, if we are to look at it calmly as leaders, we see there is a sundry of folks who just need the leadership to show them how important it is; that leadership is YOU!
• You build community and purpose.  What does it mean to know that there are thousands more toiling away, for no pay and with little sleep, with the glimmering hope that they can spark a political revolution?  When you make investments of heart like this and you can actually SEE others doing the same, it puts all of your hard work into context