Insanity is a dish best served microwaved

For the past month, my friend Susan and I have been volunteering at the Chico Democratic Headquarters.  This wasn’t my idea naturally.  I’m a proxy advocate.  I don’t usually get involved in the fight, just root them on from the sidelines.  Why?  Because I have better use of my time and energy that fighting for something I half-hearted believe in.  Yet, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to broaden my horizons.  So, I thought what they hell, it’s only two hours a week.  

The first Saturday we volunteered, they sent us out in the neighborhoods with little flyers to put on people’s door knobs.  Now, not to sound elitist, oh what they hell, I am, but I am sooooooo above going door to door.  Going door to door is for grunts and cute kids selling cookies.  No, I’m executive level volunteer.  I need to be at the office.  I’m the pretty face people want to see when they walk in the door.  Then leave me quickly because they figure out that I have no clue what’s going on around me.  I am the perfect receptionist.  

The second weekend we were there, they failed to warn us that they had planned a “Walk for Change” parade while I was volunteering.   When I got there, it was a mad house.  There were hundreds of people out in the parking lot chatting away with their Obama signs.  It was really quite inspiring.  However, I felt a little out of place.  Not that I didn’t support Obama, it’s just I don’t feel that passionate about it.  Let me clarify that passion doesn’t substitute caring.  I do care, but I just don’t feel that I have to protest in the streets to tell everyone about it.  Nevertheless, I joined in and walked… it was… neat.

Week three wasn’t all too bad at all.  No large marches, just people trickling in.  Maybe it’s by virtue of our downtown location, but there are some very colorful people that come into the office.  I have to try my hardest not to laugh or smirk when they talk.  But they are just so far left, it’s hard to see where they are coming from in the world of reality.  I don’t mind helping, so I chalk it up to a learning experience.

Then there was this week… after working until 2:30 the night before at our Halloween party, then getting up at 9a to return our U-Haul truck, I show up to the office.  It’s pouring rain and we have another “Walk for Change” scheduled.  Because of the rain, I thought they would modify or cancel the walk.. oh no, that’s not happening.  They are going to abbreviate the walk instead.  And guess who has to go… yours truly.  Well, I don’t have to go.  But I would look like a jackass if I didn’t, so I caved.  But before the walk,  I got that uncomfortable feeling inside me again.  The rest of the people in the office were so idealistic about Obama, that I felt that I just didn’t quite fit in.  They worship the man.  They have spent countless hours of their lives the past six or nine months fighting for this guy.  And here I am just answering phones, refusing to phone bank–because I hate it, two hours a week and that’s my contribution.    So, I just simle again out of kindness and join them on the walk.  There “abbreviated” walk was an hour in the pouring rain.  I was soaked, cold, and miserable.  The thing that bothered me the most is I don’t know what it did for either Obama, the movement, or the passion.  Maybe it brought people in our town together for an outlet for their passion.  Maybe it’s just a way to show the majority of our conservative town that we are organized (which btw, we’re not), or maybe it’s just because our country is just so desperate for the change Obama has promised.  Regardless of what the outcome is, this election has taught me that people don’t have to be passionate about the elections to care… but they have to care to be passionate.