cthulhu-elections.gifIt’s Saturday morning.  And it’s been a long, grumpy week of moaning and whining and angry, invective-filled bitch-fests…and that’s just been me on the phone with friends talking about the crap in the news.

You know what I’m most tired of this week?  Feeling like so much of my life is constantly a choice between the lesser of two evils.

Here’s what I’d like: To walk into the voting booth and mark my ballot, proudly and happily, for a candidate in whom I wholeheartedly and unreservedly believe.  Wouldn’t that be swell?  It has happened rarely in my lifetime, and each and every time it has been a joyous moment for me as a voter.

It isn’t as though I don’t see people who excite me politically.  Or people who believe in and work hard for issues that I also take very seriously.  Or people who are working their asses off to make things happen against extraordinary odds.  Because I do…and I talk to those sorts of people a lot.

But this week, for some reason, I’m feeling not so thrilled with the way things are going.  And really edgy.  If our comments are any indication, a lot of you are feeling it as well, that tension as we all wait to see what the next dropping shoe will bring.

I’ve got scandal fatigue.  And cave-in-itis.  So this morning, we’re going to take a break from all the bitching and moaning and worrying…because, frankly, I can’t take any more.

Let’s take some time today to talk about real leadership.  The sort of moral courage that it takes to put that first foot forward on a path that ultimately could lead to a better life for everyone else around you, no matter the cost to you personally.  The sort of courage it took for a woman like Rosa Parks to sit down, so that others could finally stand up tall and proud…and equal.  The sort of vision it took to put a man on the moon.  The sort of strength it takes to face down a wall of pressure hoses with nothing but your faith in humanity and the righteousness of your cause.  The sort of guts it takes to speak up against a wrong when everyone around you is falling in line behind it.

What values do you hold dear?  What does your America — the one you hold in your heart — look like?  Act like?  Who are your heroes?  Or sheroes, for that matter?  When you think of lifting up the best that we can be, whose voice do you hear speaking to you? 

Let’s talk about the best and the brightest, and the purest of heart and soul and intellect.  Because, frankly, all this wallowing in the gutter with one corrupt, skanky scandal after another, piled on lie upon lie, is the last place I want to be today.  Who do you look to for guidance, for inspiration…for that lifting of your aspirations to the heavens and beyond?  What kind of person is the leader you want to see?  Let’s talk about the best that we can be today.  Pull up a chair…

(Huge H/T to twolf1 who sent me this hilarious graphic that he found on Yahooguy’s page.   The combination of Cthulhu and Lovecraftian snark had me at the first peek.  The science fiction/horror readers in the audience know what I mean.  Good one!  And, just for giggles, here’s a photo of the stuffed cthulhu that my friend Tom gave me a few years ago — The Peanut loves him.)