Berning Up

Much of my time these days is spent in organizing the unorganized. The Bernie Sanders campaign is a full-blown social media campaign, and I've jumped right in, admin-ing 2 Fecebook pages as well as networking and contributing with others and networking thru Fecebook into the real world.

For one thing, I'm entirely blown away by the people wanting Bernie. They are not only good, decent people who want a good, decent country. They're from every political view there is. And the common denominator is in wanting better. "We All Do Better When We All Do Better" may be the axiom that applies universally to everyone I know in this.

Another thing is that so many of the Bernie supporters have never ever been actively involved in any campaign and have no organizing clues at all. This is at the same time, exhilarating and problematic. To keep a campaign up and pumped, people need to be enthused about their contribution. The best way to be enthused is to do what you love and are good at doing. Bad- or no- skill assessment and task assignment can kill a campaign, and I worry, seeing this done willy-nilly. But I have faith it will all straighten out.

The morale among the Bernie people is something I haven't seen in my lifetime. And every time I interact with a new Bernie person, I'm amazed at the variety of characters, and that the thing everyone wants is to straighten things out. Nobody wants this oligarchic-theocratic-gossipy-mean society we've stooped to being. That's the only commonality. They've all had enough. They want the high road. They want issues, not hairdos. They want straight talk and no bullshit answers. I can't draw a picture of a Bernie supporter, and I could, in every other election. There is no stereotype.

This is the first time in years that I've put so much time into a candidacy. I'm a Bernie or Bust gal. And I'm in very good company.

My other attention goes to the Life and Adventures of Hilde Beest. I think I'm finally writing something the way you're supposed to write. Doing research, building the framework, making a time and place schedule, all while dreaming out the story. And I'm loving this process. It's the life of Beest, whose 150th birthday starts the book, in Naulakha, Kipling's home here in VT.  

In amongst this are the other things in life, which at the moment are all pretty cool. Not perfect, but not awful. I'm back to the "Is Anyone Dead?" scale of calamities. Everything's do-able as long as nobody's dead. Right now, everyone abides.

So forgive my sporadic posting and reading, I'm busy.
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