Laurel and I met through a blog party being hosted by this blog.
We were randomly assigned a partner, encouraged to get to know one
another through our blogs and emails, and then at the end of three weeks
or so send each other a hair accessory to remember our new friend
across the country by. The following snippets are excerpts from our
conversations.
Brittney writes:
Hi Laurel! I just wanted to say hi. I've only spent two minutes on your blog
and already am excited to know you because 1. I love skinny jeans too,
and 2. I went on a trip to the South for the first time about six weeks
ago and loved it. So nice to meet you.
Laurel writes:
Hey, Brittney!!! I haven't checked out your blog yet but I'm excited
to get to know you better. I love living in the South but people down
here say I'm not a true Southerner because I don't sound like one. But I
am a Georgia peach born and bred! :) It's absolutely so nice to meet
you, too. I can't wait to get started on making something for the swap.
:)
Laurel, after only an hour or so writes again:
Hey, Brittney! I checked out some of your posts and even though our politics definitely aren't in alignment...
For the record, Laurel didn't put those last five words in giant glaring text, but that's how I read them. And when I read them, I did something like this:
because I knew she had visited my blog, where it would be impossible to miss the current ROMNEY, ROMNEY, HE'S OUR MAN theme. And if our politics definitely weren't in alignment, what must she have to say to me??? It's not that I wasn't willing to stand by what I have written all these weeks, it was just that in this instance I hoped to be making a friend. I braced myself for being told I was ignorant, naive, uninformed and the rest of the barrage of insults that might follow. Through partly squinted eyes, I continued reading.
Laurel, after having been interrupted by Brittney's thoughts, continues:
...and even though our politics definitely aren't in alignment, I can
absolutely respect someone having well-formed, well-thought-out opinions
on who to vote for. Kudos to you for having a reason instead of blindly following the masses. Faith in humanity - restored.
Needless to say, we are friends.
Here are some excerpts from my favorite parts of our conversations.
Brittney writes:
Laurel! There are few things I like more than
meeting someone who differs from me politically and totally hitting it
off with them. :) Thank YOU for restoring MY faith in humanity. There is
too much unkindness and incivility in the world and I appreciate your
openness and friendliness towards me.
Laurel writes:
It's always so, so, so, SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to meet someone who is
opinionated (see what I did there?) but not hateful about it. Lots of
people aren't like that, like everyone and their brother on their
Facebook wall posts.
Laurel writes:
I'm not voting for Romney because he's Mormon. But I'm not not voting
for Romney because he's Mormon either. His choice of religious
belief/worship/denomination does not even enter into my spectrum of
reasons to vote a certain way, though it is clearly of interest and it
might matter if he was a Satanist or something more sinister.
Brittney writes:
It made me laugh, when I made that very definitive statement, that a vote should not be based on religion, I did make a little mental
disclaimer like the one you did...I thought, shoot, if some religious
fanatic ever comes up for the vote, I would have to take that back.
and all politics aside...
Brittney writes:
I've attached a picture of what I pictured when I read your preferences on hair
accessories... please let me know how close or how very far away I am to
something you'd enjoy receiving :).
Laurel writes:
I love that bow clip!!! My motto is basically, "When in doubt, add glitter."
Finally, one of my favorite things my new friend Laurel has had to say:
Laurel writes:
I can absolutely respect someone having well-formed, well-thought-out opinions on who to vote for. It's your vote, not mine!
I
knew when I chose to throw my mind and heart into this campaign that a
lot of it wasn't going to be pretty. In fact, I knew that choosing to
stay informed and aware of the issues meant that I was going to be
subjecting myself to a lot of the ugliness politics has to offer. It's
been said, however, that most things in life worth having don't come
easily, and
for me this is one of those times.
Go pay her a visit. She's a really great girl.
http://www.theopinionatedgirl.com/
I am voting for Mitt Romney because it is my vote and I want to. No, it's bigger than that. I have never so confidently or earnestly placed my support behind a candidate. For all the reasons I have stated the past five Saturdays and will state in next week's final post, I believe America would be blessed to have such a man as president. I am voting for Mitt Romney because even after I am exposed to the mountain of hate spewed in newspaper discussion forums, in YouTube videos, on Facebook, Pinterest (I didn't know Pinterest could be an engine for hate, I just thought it was for yummy recipes and cute decorating ideas :), network television and talk radio, I am not swayed. I am still able to dig my candidate out from underneath it all. I dust him off and he is still worthy of my vote.
There is one remaining Saturday in the Seven Saturdays series.
If you have disagreed with me, that's okay. Laurel is one of several very dear friends who don't agree with my political stance.
But if you have agreed with much of what has been said here, or any of the other posts, please share them. Send the link in emails, post it to Facebook, pin it on Pinterest.
What can you do in these final days in this election to make a difference?
No comments:
Post a Comment