Vote!

Yesterday, I drove out to the Board of Elections to vote early.  This is only my second time voting in person.  Prior to this, every time I voted in Florida, I voted via absentee ballot.  Ever since I have moved to Ohio, I have voted in person.  And it is a vastly different experience.

Two years ago, I found the experience to be very smooth.  If you know me, you know I get more nervous about driving somewhere new and finding parking than anything else.  As I drove to the Board of Elections yesterday the trip was familiar enough to quell that anxiety.

I laughed to myself when I passed a parking garage with a sign that said more parking for voting was available there and I thought that seems optimistic for voting in a year when the president is not up for election. 

I found parking quite close yesterday.  It was cool and I was walking briskly.  I realized only later that I was wearing all blue—I did not do that on purpose—though I can’t rule out that my subconscious may have dressed me that morning.  I was wearing blue jeans, a navy blue shirt and a blue jacket.

The only thing not blue on me were my sneakers.

And perhaps that’s why they caught the attention of the very first poll worker I saw.  She was waiting to greet everyone as soon as they walked through the door.  She was an older woman with gray hair and she was seated, but she moved to the edge of the seat, when she saw me.

I pointed to my left where the sign was pointing, but she immediately stopped me and said, “Those shoes look so comfortable!”

I stopped in my tracks.  “They are!” I said back not just because I was being friendly but because legitimately they are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn.

“What kind are they?” she asked me, sliding off her chair so she could get a better look.

“Skechers,” I told her.

She pulled back.  “Those always feel heavy to me.”

“Oh, not these,” I told her.  “These are like walking on clouds, like pillows.”

“But they’re not slip-ons?” she asked.

“Oh, they’re slip-ons,” I said, and right there in the voting place, I slid off my right shoe and then slipped right back in again to show her.  “It’s that easy.”

Meanwhile, other people are filing in behind me and this woman who’s supposed to direct them as to where to go is laser-focused on my shoes.

I’m thinking they can read the signs.

And sure enough, everyone seemed to get where they needed to go.

“I have neuropathy,” the woman told me.  “I’m looking for a good pair of shoes.  Take them off again and show me how easily you can slip back in.”

So, once again, I took off my shoe to show her.

Let me just say that this conversation probably went on for five minutes or so and ended with her pulling out her phone so she could get a picture of the shoe.

I can only imagine what the people who came in behind me were thinking like, "Why are they making that woman take off her shoes?"

I eventually went on my way to vote and that was that.

But you know as soon as I got home, I was thinking to myself—God always gives me a story to tell and He knows I’m going to use this story in this week’s Morning Prayer reflection.

I have to admit that there was a part of me that didn’t want to vote this election.  It was not about apathy—I am so far from apathy—it wasn’t that I don’t care.  It was that a tiny bit of helplessness and hopelessness and pessimism had begun to take seed.  Not only the thought, did my vote matter, but even if all the people I voted for got elected would anything change in a meaningful way or are we too far gone as a society.

Part of the problem is that everything we see on the news is the worst of the worst of society.  And specifically with voting, we have been told whether we are democrat or republican that bad things might happen when we vote, that there will be people there watching us or discouraging us from voting, that the other side will cheat, that there will be mass chaos.

And then I showed up to vote yesterday and all I found was an old woman with neuropathy who wanted a pair of good shoes.

There is more light in this world than darkness.

And even the tiniest bit of light can drive out the darkest of nights.

The light of God’s love might some days feel like a pinprick, but if that pinprick is the light of a star winking at us in the night sky, then know that that pinprick of light has the power to illuminate galaxies. 

In today’s reading from Luke, Jesus tells the disciples “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!”

The disciples saw miracles, food to feed the poor, healing for the unwell and resurrection of the dead.

But we too can see the miracles that happen every day all around us.

What I saw at the Board of Elections yesterday was something that was both simple and profound—neighbor loving neighbor, strangers smiling at each other—good will and hope.

We are not so far gone as a people.

We can be each other’s light.

We can be Jesus to each other.

And all it takes is one step … in some pretty comfortable shoes.

Amen.