Sunday Scribblings Post-Prompt "Vote"
Vote
I don't talk about politics with him, because, in all honesty, our core values are the same and while there are issues that we absolutely agree on, like freedom of speech and the rights of artists in conjunction with their work, I don't think that where we stand on many political debates either detracts from or contributes to our relationship. I've always felt that one's political conventions are a deeply personal matter and that if someone wants to keep them private then they have every right. I'm fortunate to be with someone who agrees wholeheartedly with me. We do our own research and come to our own conclusions while we educate ourselves to become informed voters. That's really the most important thing to me, that when he goes to a polling spot that he's doing so making informed choices that are best for him. When he heard me say that, he was so excited by that idea, because we were on the exact same page in that regard. As long as the decisions being made aren't done by blind hoping and poking, it's fine.
Voting does come into play in our lives in other ways, though, funnily enough. We don't just run right over the top of each other when it comes to picking out movies to watch or food to eat. While I fully believe in the healing powers of watching “The Princess Bride”, I do understand that not everyone can watch that movie as many times as I can. He gets that, while I really enjoy “Dirty Harry”, I'm not going to want to watch it every weekend, either. When it comes to picking something like that out, we each present our cases and do our best to convince the other one to watch it. There are allowances for “bad day vetoes” because just absolutely not being in the mood to hear the “Do you feel lucky, Punk?” speech one more damn time or “I am not left-handed!” is a perfectly legitimate reason not to want to watch something, just as “I had Chinese food yesterday” is a reasonable point to bring up when debating the merits of buying pizza today.
It all boils down to wanting to make sure that we each get our say and, I think, that's one of the best things that we have going for us. We can talk to each other about what we want to do or why and really be heard. Sometimes, that goes a really long way towards happiness.
I don't talk about politics with him, because, in all honesty, our core values are the same and while there are issues that we absolutely agree on, like freedom of speech and the rights of artists in conjunction with their work, I don't think that where we stand on many political debates either detracts from or contributes to our relationship. I've always felt that one's political conventions are a deeply personal matter and that if someone wants to keep them private then they have every right. I'm fortunate to be with someone who agrees wholeheartedly with me. We do our own research and come to our own conclusions while we educate ourselves to become informed voters. That's really the most important thing to me, that when he goes to a polling spot that he's doing so making informed choices that are best for him. When he heard me say that, he was so excited by that idea, because we were on the exact same page in that regard. As long as the decisions being made aren't done by blind hoping and poking, it's fine.
Voting does come into play in our lives in other ways, though, funnily enough. We don't just run right over the top of each other when it comes to picking out movies to watch or food to eat. While I fully believe in the healing powers of watching “The Princess Bride”, I do understand that not everyone can watch that movie as many times as I can. He gets that, while I really enjoy “Dirty Harry”, I'm not going to want to watch it every weekend, either. When it comes to picking something like that out, we each present our cases and do our best to convince the other one to watch it. There are allowances for “bad day vetoes” because just absolutely not being in the mood to hear the “Do you feel lucky, Punk?” speech one more damn time or “I am not left-handed!” is a perfectly legitimate reason not to want to watch something, just as “I had Chinese food yesterday” is a reasonable point to bring up when debating the merits of buying pizza today.
It all boils down to wanting to make sure that we each get our say and, I think, that's one of the best things that we have going for us. We can talk to each other about what we want to do or why and really be heard. Sometimes, that goes a really long way towards happiness.