GROWING ADULTIER AND ADULTIER BY THE SECOND
What constitutes the "turning point" for a person, when they officially truly become an adult? Could there be one (could there be several)?
For me, my turning point may have been my 22nd birthday, which is the day I graduated from college, and realized that, from then on, I'd be a woman of the working world.
Soon after graduating, I did indeed begin my life as a full-time worker. I started getting real-life regular pay stubs. I began noticing on those pay stubs, with my own two eyes, that portions of my pay were indeed going straight to the federal and state governments for taxes. I was getting W-2 forms every year, and was taking responsibility for those and with those in-hand each tax season. I was signing up for stuff like retirement plans, healthcare plans, and car insurance. I bought a car, and owned it long enough to even pay it completely off. It still runs nicely today.
I freakishly got abnormally ecstatic when I arrived at a point where home utilities accounts were all under my name. Paying bills. Does it get much adultier than that!? Dahahah.
POLITICS? ME? SAY WHAAA?
I still kind of think of myself as a kid. "Twenty-two years old" was kind of a long time ago, but I still don't feel very old. (Okay, I guess 22 wasn't all that long ago.) A small handful of years after 22 -- just a measly four years ago -- I felt I had reached a whole new, different level of adulthood: I suddenly began actually caring about politics.
Which seems somewhat contradictory to what my attitude towards politics was when I was a more youthier youth. Back in those olden days (as far as Alisonian historic timeline is concerned), I was frankly disinterested in politics. They made not much sense, and they seemed boring. All that politicians ever said was precisely what Charlie Brown's teachers only said.
But four years ago, I was a young working woman living in a fun apartment complex in a college town, and so I was surrounded by fun and happy college kids all the time. These were and are still great friends of mine. I think my being immersed in their company on a continual basis caused for some of their brightness and brilliance to rub off on me. I feel smarter and more aware of the world around me because I grew together with them.
One day I was at home in the complex, and something whispered to me in my brain: "Hey, you'd probably really enjoy watching the presidential candidate debate tonight on TV..." And I was like, "Yeah!" And then, out of the blue, I got promptly invited by a friend to go watch the debate in their apartment. And it was like, Whoa! For sure! I was just thinking not even one nanosecond ago that I would LOVE to watch it! A debate-viewing party? This will be purrrrrrrfect! And four years later -- this year -- I am absolutely LOVING watching the debates AGAIN.
SO......WHAT IN THE HECK, EH!?
So what the heck is up with me? What got me started on this "I-heart-politics" path? (To clarify, it is not a craze for me, but it is a healthy real interest. There's a difference.) Why is it that I am frequently catching myself saying that the 2016 Presidential Debate is my favorite TV show?
I'm pretty sure it's because I have now realized in myself that my understanding of the significance of my United States citizenship is much more solid than it ever was in my youthier youth. It's because I get it now, differently from how I thought I "got" it previously. I may not currently "get it" as much as I have potential to "get it" in the future; I have room to grow and much more to learn. But I do get it fairly decently at the moment. I'm beginning to see how I, as an American, fit into America, and how the way America is run affects me.
To those of you who may be reading this, who do not currently believe that you matter all that much in the grand scheme of this nation and the way it runs and is governed, I urge you to reconsider and really think through things. You do matter, and so elections should matter to you. We should care and show concern. As we are officially in this pre-election season, full of broadcast debates and interviews and speeches, etc., brought to you by the candidates themselves, we have tons of opportunity to study up on candidates and figure out for ourselves which ones' values and opinions jive the best with ours.
REGARDING THE DEBATES
If the case is that all of the gazillions of gallons of mega-crazy U.S. issues swirling around all over the country and across the seas cause your noggin to desperately doggy-paddle in a whirlpool of helplessness, and you really just don't know how to take it all in... Well, then... I'm pretty much just like you.
But the cool thing about the Presidential Debates is that multiple confusing hot-topic mega-crazy issues get lassoed together into one spot, and they get discussed in short, concise, and fairly-easy-to-comprehend sentences. The issues get tidied up and get displayed fairly neatly in a row on a figurative shelf. And to me, that's a refreshing way to take a gander at the issues. My thought processes regarding the issues feel less chaotic, and...well, it's just bueno.
Back to the gazillions of gallons in swirly form, though:
The news -- the media -- while often is fairly interesting to me, is far more often just...jumbled. It throws itself into the faces of everybody watching, from up above and down below; from here, there, and everywhere, night and day. The media tries to yank us from the "left" and from the "right," like a tireless tug-of-war; both sides scoop up the mud from the tug-of-war battleground and fiercely chuck it across the arena with deliberate aim.
And in the debates, I am noticing, the same sort of mud-chucking happens between individual candidates, including from the Republican side of the playing field, to the Democratic side, and back again (and back again). It's a funny little cycle. While the 2016 Presidential Debates are basically my favorite things to watch on the telly, I still think the whole atmosphere of the debates is an eensy bit goofy... (But I guess, perhaps, I may just be comparing the atmosphere to that of my former days of being on my high school's U.S. Government "We the People" debate team; whenever we had something to say, we simply just calmly placed our hand on the table, palm down.)
Sometimes a Presidential Debate is similar to a hothead game show. Sometimes it almost reminds you of a handful of tantrum-throwing tiny miniature humans who are the middle of undergoing their terrible-twos...
Common example: one candidate is speaking passionately, with flames coming out of their mouth, pointing a finger at another candidate (and they've not unlikely gone over their answer-giving time limit), and the candidate they're referring to is actually standing right there right next to them...and that candidate, with equally-fiery defensive catlike reflexes says, "Wai-wai-wai-wait!!!! HOLD the phone. Hold it. Now that's just not right..." They interject/interrupt relentlessly the best they know how.
I confess, I too would be a relentless interrupter in front of a nationwide audience of millions, if a fellow debater were boldly and/or boisterously claiming something about me that just wasn't true. I wouldn't stand for it.
But that's just the thing... That's one of the numerous factors that make the Presidential Debates so intriguing to me. Some audience members say that one candidate is lying through their teeth, while others believe every word proceeding forth from that candidate's mouth. So-and-so can make a "false claim" about so-and-so, but is that claim, in actuality, downright false? It's likely that both truths and (shall we say) half-truths are zooming and zipping across those Presidential Debate stages, and I personally find the mystery quite interesting.
OUR JOB
But because there is mystery, there also has to be caution on the part of U.S. citizens -- the normal, everyday Americans. You and me. We're probably not ever going to be perfect at this -- and that is perfectly okay -- but we need to put these candidates under real scrutiny. In whatever ways we can, we need to try looking into what they're really saying and thinking. We need to think for ourselves, and be very wary of falling into what I believe is a strange yet super-existent trap of a not-thinking-for-ourselves mentality that yields to giving media and gargantuan societal forces full control of the reigns of our political conscience. Whoa. Did I really just write that sentence? Never before has any sentence like that emerged from the joint powers of my brain and phalanges. I don't even know if it makes any sense. It kinda maybe does, though... If not, dear reader, well then...just move right along to the next paragraph or something.
MY FAVORITE DEBATE TAKEAWAYS
In case there is any air that could use some clearing, here goes: No, don't worry, I do not think mostly chaos of the Presidential Debates; Yes, I do detect soberness in them, and I do discover wholesomely profound takeaways to place into my pocket and carry around with me.
My favorite candidates, who happen to be the ones I wouldn't mind having as my next President of the United States, are ones who show fabulous class and deep respect for many, and it actually shows in their faces, in their demeanor, and in the way they talk to and look at the people with whom they are sharing the stage. I naturally pay a tremendous amount of attention to this kind of thing. For me, it's not just about the stuff they're saying; it's got sooooo much to do with the unspoken things -- the nonverbal communication. A person can convey his or her spoken words in whatever costume he or she wants to. But body language? All the nonverbal communicating that we all do? That is heaps harder to control, because most of the time, nobody even realizes what they're doing as they're doing it (nonverbally communicating, which actually comprises 80-90% of all communicating that a human does).
So yeah, much of why I admire my favorite candidates as much as I do, lies in the fact that I believe I can sense their genuineness in their...well...I guess you could say "aura." In their "air." It is also these people whose values and opinions align the best with mine, and they share these values, opinions, and plans in dignified tones and manners. It also so happens that these particular candidates, I have noticed, do a very minimal amount of mudslinging (well, maybe there's such thing as "defensive mudslinging," for every now and then I think I've noticed that my favorites have, in fact, had cause to stoutly put their foot down in some instances). What's most important on their agendas is that they propose solutions to the actual problems that are facing and infiltrating the nation.
I'm gonna come out and say it shamelessly (for there honestly is no shame in it): I am a Republican. I vote Republican. I know that a lot of Republicans like to chuck mud at Democrats, and Democrats like to chuck mud at Republicans. If you think that can be denied, well, think again.
(Side Note: Here's something from my heart's bottom, though: I personally don't wish to be a mud-flinger. I get a funny taste in my mouth anytime I even start to think about flinging some. I get a funny taste in my mouth anytime I see or hear a vicious flinging in person or via the interwebs/radio/TV/written publications and periodicals. I'm far more inclined to promote candidates I admire, than to demote candidates whom I don't admire quite as much.)
THE STYLE I'M TRYING TO DEVELOP
As a Republican, especially during this pre-election season at-hand, I am trying to make it a point to not just get myself involved in learning about my Republicans. I am trying to also learn for myself about who these Democrats are. I watched the first Democratic Presidential Debate from a few days ago. I did so, because: A) like I said before, the 2016 Presidential Debates are my favorite TV show, whether it's the elephants' turn or the donkeys' turn; and B) I wanted to carefully listen to what the Democrats have to say, and try to gain understandings as to where the different Democratic candidates are coming from on all the mega-crazy issues.
Why do I want to gain these understandings of members from a party different from my own? Because I want to humanize them. I think there's a great deal of dehumanizing in politics, as I may have been able to explain previously a little bit.
During the Democratic debate, I heard the words (and I paraphrase): "The Republicans are demonizing immigrants." And during the Republican debates, I heard stuff like, "Hillary this and Hillary that, la la la, Trump this and Trump that, la la la..." The overall intention may be to uncover what's wrong in a helpful manner, but from my perspective, it sometimes can come across as dehumanizing.
And I want to humanize. While my viewpoints on several "mega-crazy" issues may differ either slightly or significantly from the viewpoints of several of the candidates -- Republican and Democrat alike -- my goal and hope is to be able to remember, as often as I can, that not everybody thinks the same way and has the same ideas as I do, and that's perfectly okay, because not everybody is the same. It's diversity. It's part of what makes the human race a beautiful thing.
As I've been attempting to gain understanding in various candidates whom I wish to understand better, I am pleased to report that, so far, I am succeeding. I think it is sometimes easy for a person to "dehumanize" someone else whose political opinions aren't the same as theirs, or even virtually opposite of theirs.
Allow me to boldly declare, however, that I do believe and KNOW that there are indeed cases where a political opinion or policy is definitely not good and not right. It very much is important to stand up against that which is blatantly wrong where-and-when possible.
In general, however (back to my goal of gaining understanding in candidates), I am liking how my chosen debate-watching style is potentially helping me to channel that into my everyday life, in the sense that it may be aiding me in trying to see things from the different perspectives of the people I know and spend my time with on a regular basis.
Many of my friends for sure see things differently from the way that I do. And to be honest, every once in a while, that fact can kind of ruffles my feathers. But my Presidential-Debate-watching style is helping me to remember that these people are still my friends and are extremely great people, and they are humans just as I am a human.
And there ya go. I am done now. Good night/day!
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