Juggling Life and Activism

People are not always on the ball.

Sometimes the ball rolls right over us.

In times when the ball slips away, or crushes you,
just think of Happy Bunny... Every now and then, its okay to say that it is all about YOU, and your loved ones. Be it work or grassroots activism, you just got to claim the time you need to be successful in your life.

Through life, that multifascited construct of shared reality, many of us will drop the ball or be crushed by it ;-)

I have dropped the ball. It happens.
Actually, I think I have dropped the ball more than a few times--this is part of what prompted me to focus on the topic of how to manage involvement with a busy working and personal life!

Births, deaths, business ventures, going the extra effort for work, needing a day to lay about the house.....these are just a few of the reasons I have heard from people on why they are not able to keep up with what they WANT to do, what they TRY to do, to promote Democracy in America.

Actually, I probably spent more time doing things that I hope will promote democracy than I probably should. This time spent going to vigils, to hear condidates, to documentaries, and managing Link-ups/Meet-ups may be all be in vain, and actually more a form of procrastination from other tasks (you know the tasks people pay me for...).

Somewhere in the Federalist Papers, Andrew Jackson said that America needed a representative government so that the majority of citizens could go about their daily lives participating in business and commerce.
The problem is that we, the majority of citizens, still need to be informed enough to tell our representatives what is best for our interests!
It generally takes massive numbers of voices to get representatives to listen (or, apparently, a good lobbist and a bunch of cash).
And so, people have come together in grassroots activism to get their voices heard and to support progressive, financially responsible candidates who they trust.
The issue, of course, is the time involved and all the bouncing balls life throws us.

From all the times that I have been the one who dropped the ball, and from all the times I have seen others drop the ball, I feel I can say this with some certainty:

TELL SOMEONE YOU HAVE DROPPED THE BALL.
This is what makes being part of a team really worth it.