Casting Your Ballot
As the USA – and the world – digest the long process of campaigning and the conclusion of the Presidential election, many are vocal and emotional about the outcome. Some are still mourning or celebrating loss or win. Some feel their votes didn’t count and others feel they didn’t count enough to vote. Regardless, democracy has named a winner and the world awaits America’s next steps.
Here’s the thing: How engaged are we in the way, and things, we vote on every day? When we buy a grocery item or airline ticket, an electronic device or music or movie, we are balloting. It may be indirect balloting, but the information is being used in powerful ways to help companies, NGOs, and governments know what, how, when, why we think and to use that information in dynamic and group impacting ways.
When we share a perspective via social media or share our time and expertise mentoring, we are providing information that gets used to determine outcomes in the society and economy in which we live – balloting!
When we determine how, and how much, we engage at work we are balloting; either for ourselves or for the company in which we are employed. The thing about balloting is it really matters to be a well informed balloter who doesn’t wait to vote on just the big issues in life; rather, being a lifelong learner who pays attention to the details and votes on it all, whether seemingly big or little.
Long ago, my father taught me to treat my life with the urgency and legitimacy I treated my first voter registration drive efforts. He encouraged me that if I would pay attention to the smallest details of my life, they would in turn, contribute fundamentally to the bigger issues of life that were sure to come. He believed that voting at the local level not only determined the quality of life for individual communities; he believed that voting on the local level built the political power of individuals who would rise up within the elected arena. He paralleled smart, significant balloting to smart, significant living. He believed that paying attention to everything we do and treating it as a vote for the quality of our lives was as important as casting a political vote at the ballot box.
In short, my father taught me that every day I am given the opportunity to learn, consider and vote by the decisions I make to engage, or not engage, in life, work and community. He taught me to examine options well and to create those options that I don’t find to exist to my liking. He taught me to be clear minded, fair and deliberate in my balloting and my living. He taught me to consider every aspect of every decision, because everything matters.
My father taught me well….
