Sarah Palin

What can I say? I love her. McCain looks like the Crypt Keeper and I'm really not feeling him. He seems so insincere. However, Palin is so refreshing. It is so pleasing to have a strong woman support the lives of babies. This is such an important issue for me, perhaps the most important. The media's infatuation with her teenage daughter's pregnancy is so tasteless. I concur with Obama that this is a family matter. Moreover, this is demonstrative of a young woman assuming responsibility for her actions. A colleague of mine even said it was horrible for her mother to "force marriage" upon her. What? Who says this marriage is forced? So what if it is? What makes it her business or my business for that matter? Further, why is it that so many people assume young marriages fail? I've been married since I was 22 and we have outlasted many people who were married at older ages. My husband is the product of a teenage pregnancy and guess what, his parents married and are still married to this day. My husband is in his 30s! My best friend's parents married at 19 and guess what, they are still married. So naysayers, guess what, sometimes good things do come out of "challenging situations" to borrow the words of Mrs. Palin.
I also admire Palin's courage and integrity in caring for her youngest son who has down syndrome. So many cowards would have killed this child for lacking their idea of perfection. I really find it quite disturbing and less than intelligent for people to stick strictly to party lines without implementing intuitive faculty to discern real issues. The real issue here is this woman has a real family with real challenges. They have addressed these with dignity and without the hypocrisy of so many others who say they support values and yet sneak to commit immoral acts in times of challenge. So to Mrs. Palin, I say congratulations, you have revived this dead campaign. You are not saying what you think other's want to hear or trying to appease everyone. Do your thing girl.

I received this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of my favorites, and it seems fitting here.

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty is everywhere, all around an in each one of us. Yet where do we put our attention? On what we have decided is “wrong?” On what we think needs to be “fixed?” There is beauty in these things, too – if we would only look for it. There is a lesson, a gift, a treasure to be found in every situation and circumstance. We can acknowledge it or turn away from it – but it is there nonetheless. -Lissa Coffey