Go Vote!

I voted today.  It wasn't much of a ballot this primary season.  A couple of candidates who are going to win no matter what and some judges for family court, but I went to the polls, and I voted.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad was a precinct captain.  I didn't really know what that was, but it sounded important, and every election day, he would take off work, which he NEVER did, and leave the house at the crack of dawn and head up to Stonestreet Elementary School with a box of donuts in each hand to watch the polls.

After school, Mom would stop by to vote, and we would get to go into the booth with her and stand there while she pulled the curtain shut.  It always reminded me of the Wizard of Oz the way it opened and closed, and there WAS something magical about pulling down the lever and having your voice heard.

At the end of the night, Dad would come home with a big piece of paper in hand, and he would spread it out on the kitchen table and note the final count of votes for each candidate.  Then he would call the district headquarters and report on the results.  I always found it exciting when "our guy," whoever it was, "won" our precinct.  It felt like a good omen to me.  Then we would sit down in front of the TV and watch the returns.  Invariably, The Wizard of Oz was actually on one of the channels, and every so often, it would get interrupted for an election update.  Still to this day, I am riveted to the TV every election night, memories of years gone by fresh in my mind.

Today, my son is eligible to vote in his first election.  He is not interested at all.  He is disillusioned with our country and how little voice we "the people" have anymore, and he doesn't see the point in voting because it doesn't really matter.  "Politicians don't care.  They are going to get into office and do whatever they want anyway.  Why bother?"

Why bother?  I thought about it.  I have never missed a chance to vote since the very first time I was eligible to vote.  I've voted in the pouring down rain.  In the cold.  When I've been sick.  With new babies on my hip.  But why?

I vote because I can.  I vote because some places in this world there are people who do not have the right to vote, and if someone told me I no longer had that right, I would be up in arms.  I vote because less than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to, and many women went to jail in order to have their voices heard.  I vote because men and women have died defending our freedoms, and my vote honors their sacrifice.  I vote because my ancestors came to this country to escape tyranny and intolerance, and my vote honors their choice to become American citizens.  I vote because I refuse to believe it doesn't matter any more.  I vote because I believe when people let apathy keep them from the polls, democracy dies a little bit at a time.  I vote because I am lucky enough to live in the United States of America, and while our system is not perfect, it is our system, and I want my voice, however small, to be heard.

I voted today.  Did you?

Finally, A Second Bloom

2011

2014

One day after school, Kyle, in the third grade at the time, came home excited beyond belief.  He dumped his backpack in the door and rushed to find me in the kitchen.

"Mom!" he exclaimed, "I have a surprise for you!"  And he reached in his pocket and pulled out a napkin, carefully folded into a tiny square.

With a little trepidation, I went to unfold it to see what was inside.  No telling what kind of "treasure" an eight-year old boy could fold up in a napkin!

Before I could get it open or even ask what it was, he cautioned, "Be careful!  It's seeds!  And they will grow into the most beautiful flower you have ever seen!"

Sure enough, three tiny, flat seeds, so light that they would blow away at the slightest whisper, were folded up inside that napkin and carried home in Kyle's pocket.

He continued, "Mrs. Lenihan said that if we put them in some dirt in a pot that in about 5 years, you will have the most beautiful flower ever!  I told her how much you love flowers, and so she gave me some seeds. Aren't you so happy?"  He smiled to break my heart, and I hugged him and said, "Thank you so much for thinking of me, Kyle!  I'm sure these will be beautiful one day."

We found a pot in the garage, filled it with some potting soil, and placed the seeds down in the dirt, where they disappeared almost immediately.  A sprinkling of water, placement in the kitchen window, and we were through.

Kyle checked the pot every day for about a week, waiting for the seeds to sprout.  Weeks turned into months.  I watered the dirt every so often, but couldn't bear to throw it out because of how excited Kyle had been when he came home that afternoon.  After a few months, I found a metal flower pick to stick down in the dirt, and I was really glad that we had picked a Louisville Stoneware pot to plant the seeds in so at least the pot was pretty.

Third grade turned to fourth, and just when I was about ready to toss the whole thing, I noticed a little nub of green beginning to poke up through the dirt.  Kyle was thrilled, and I was intrigued.  Never had I known seeds to take a year to germinate.

We watched as they grew overnight.  One inch, two, three.  Pretty soon, we had about 18 inches of stalk-like leaves, similar to a tulip leaf, but no stem for a flower.  The leaves stayed green for a couple of weeks and then began to die back.  Yellowing at the tips and then down the whole plant until it was limp and brown.  I pulled them off, and we waited to see what would happen next.

Nothing.

Nothing happened for several more months.  Then another shoot of leaves came up and grew and grew and grew, but still, no flowers.

Months turned into years.  The teacher who gave Kyle the seeds retired and moved away.  Kyle graduated from grade school and headed off to St. X.  The cycle of the plant kept up until finally, one day about seven years after we planted those three seeds, we noticed something different.  Coming up out of the leaves was a stalk.  It looked to have a bud on it.  We watched and waited.  A few days later, there it was, this beautiful amaryllis-type flower.  We had no idea what we had grown, but it WAS beautiful!  I took a picture of Kyle with it.  He was 15 and a freshman in high school.

The flower lasted about a week and then died.  I thought he had told me that it only bloomed once, so I was about to toss it once again.  But once again, he stopped me.  "No," he said, "it will bloom again.  It just takes awhile."  So I put it back on my window sill and kept watering.

About a week ago, after three more years of leaf cycles, I noticed another stalk popping up.  Two days ago, the flower opened up, and for the second time in TEN YEARS, we have more blooms, and ironically, tomorrow is his last day of high school.

I have discovered that it is an amaryllis plant, grown from seed, and it took so long to bloom because the seeds were forming a bulb under the soil.  Hopefully as the plant matures, it won't wait so long between blooms because it IS one of the most beautiful flowers I've seen, mostly because every time I look at it, I see those eager eyes, a gap-toothed smile, and three tiny seeds folded up in a napkin.