Back Where We Started

As the election has come to an end, I promise this will be the last post with political thoughts in it for quite a while. In fact it won't be all politcal, but several things came to me last night regarding where I and my family are, and it sure seems like we have been here before.

First of all, as previously documented, I was livid when the primary season ended and the Republican nominee was John McCain. For a number of reasons that are best left in the past, I had vowed never to vote for him in an election again and now here he was as the Republican option on the ticket. At the time, I remember thinking, I may just vote for Clinton or Obama just so that I don't have to vote for this joker again in four years. In so many ways, McCain never supported things that I believe in and in my opinion was not a good candidate. I also looked at the economic climate (which has clearly gotten even worse) and realized that the next president was going to have a lot of problems that very likely would not work themselves out in four years. In my warped thinking at the time, I thought that it was probably just as good that a democrat get the blame for it as anyone and then we might have a better shot with a more friendly looking congress in 2012.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had come around and voted for McCain. I didn't do so with any great excitement and I knew when I voted that he wasn't going to win. But I had gotten myself in the mind set of a President Obama being something we might not be able to recover from for several years, specifically with Supreme Court appointments. As the night unfolded on Tuesday and Obama was giving his speech. I realized, I was ok. I wasn't devastated like I was when Clinton won. Obama will pursue things that I profoundly disagree with, but recent history has shown us that if things do improve drastically and he tries to push to much of a left leaning agenda, two years from now will be a brutal night for him. Bottom line, I was back where I was in March. I am kind of glad I don't have to worry about voting for McCain in 2012. I still don't like him. I still can't wait to vote against him in his next Senate election. My guy, Romney now can run again in four years instead of eight which is expected if your party has an incumbent president. Or maybe Bobby Jindal from Louisiana will emerge, which would be absolutely fine with me. It was funny because I had come full circle.

Unfortunately, other things also come full circle. November 4 was also a big day for our family because my mom was scheduled to learn the results of her most recent PT Scan. She had started chemotherapy and we all felt good about the likelihood that it would have very positive effects. While she learned that the tumors she had previously had had not grown, we unfortunately learned that new growths were found in her lungs. The diagnosis was again not good. We have been on such a roller coaster between hope and despair that maybe we had grabbed onto the chemotherapy solution a little too much. Please do not misunderstand, we have not given up. But when I talked to my mom last night, I found myself with the dark cloud returning and with similar feelings I had had several months ago.

Personally, I will be glad when 2008 is over. We have been greatly blessed. We have our new daughter Kate and she is such a joy and a blessing. But overall, 2008 has been a tough year. There is no guarantee that 2009 will be any better, but at least it will be different.

So here I am. Feeling the same feelings I had months ago. They say first impressions are often correct. Maybe in these cases they are right. All I know is: Things are the way they are and we go from here. So my final thoughts of this election year of 2008 are, Go Romney/Jindal in 2012 and Go Mom in 2009! We are praying for you.