I voted ... and wax (grow) philosophical

It's 8:30 A.M. EST here in New Jersey. I've just returned from voting for Kerry/Edwards. So much for the secret ballot ... well, it is secret. I could have told you one thing and done another. But I didn't. I voted for Kerry.

Last night I was still toying with idea of voting for Nader. I thought if I vote early I'll vote for Kerry, but if I wait and see how the exit polls for New Jersey are going, and Kerry is comfortably ahead, then maybe a vote for Nader would send the right message.

A young friend--16 and too young to vote--dissuaded me. She actually used "scarey" to describe the prospects of another four years of Bush. Hearing her say that snapped me out of my self-indulgent boutique unique and bank-shot mentality. I voted early for Kerry.

She was right. This election is far too important to not be entirely clear in my voting: Bush is so incompetent (echoing the current issue of The Economist) that come hell or high water he has to go.

Also, I won't have to spend the rest of my life explaining why I threw my vote away by being some kind of nuanced idealist and not a realist. Of course, I could lie about it and no one else would know ... but I would ... and that would sow a seed of self-doubt that would grow in my mind ... for once it's done, it's done and can't be undone ... and I would have to live with the consequences of my actions with or without deception.

With that thought my mind migrated to the universe of elections and specifically to the elections planned for Iraq. What will be the dynamics of the individual Iraqian's psyche in deciding how to vote? Will it be the allegiance to their own self, their family, their clan or tribe, their sect, their nation, or something else? How will each person resolve the need for inner unity between the factions competing for his or her loyalty?

I have a hunch that in Iraq it will be the personal relationship to the clan that competes most for a sense of pyschological unity. This is where the questioning of how one voted will arise with greatest intensity, and this is where deception will create the most internal angst.

For myself, achieving inner coherance through the guidance of an intellectually gifted youth who embodies the values and principles of my own highest aspirations and those of my "clan" is being in the cosmic circle. Being aware of it brings a satisfying joyful serenity.

Nature--and, by extension, the cosmos--defends and rewards the nuturing of possibility. The warrior is not the goal, the newborn is.