We had our none Meetup Dean meeting tonight. Everyone came. No one bolted, backed out, or withdrew their support. No one fretted or moaned or groaned. Instead we spread out the precinct maps and voter lists and divided up the county. Then we talked about press releases and the big petition signing event next week
When I got home, I called my brother on the other coast. His group is also looking at precinct maps and voter lists and dividing up the county. No one has bolted or baacked out or switched candidates. He also watches a lot of C-SPAN, and he told me about watching Dean doing a town meeting Q&A today. He talked about how impressed he was all over again by Dean's intelligence, his grasp of the issues, and his realness. It reminded him of why he chose Dean over the others in the first place.
Every important election, every meaningful relationship, every critical battle, "the ones that really matter" there is a test, a dark night of the soul, a time when all seems lost. Whether it is the beaches of Normandy, your own bedroom, or this campaign, you stick it out. You fight and struggle on until you come through it, bloodied - but stronger because you believe.
To quote my favorite hobbit, Sam,
"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass and a new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stay with you, that meant something...Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding onto something."
"What are we holding onto, Sam."
"That there is some good in this world and it's worth fighting for." I say Howard Dean is good and worth fighting for.