Growing my political backbone

This is excerpted from an email I wrote this morning to a friend from college. She and I were the only ones in our little group who had read Tom Friedman's book From Beruit to Jerusalem for the freshman orientation the year she and I were transfer students to the college we graduated from. (How's that for a run on?) So started an intellectual friendship filled with discovery which is into its first decade and a half.

I've just re-started reading The Audacity of Hope--I started about 3 weeks before the election but had to put it down b/c I was too nervous. He is so smart! There are sentences I don't understand! As a child who grew up knowing that my dad's boss boss boss was the President, I appreciate what he said about how even though he didn't like Reagan as a pres or Bush Jr, he could see why folks voted for them and when he met Bush Jr when he became a Senator, he actually had a friendly conversation with him. My mother can't understand (and maybe you neither) how anyone could have voted for Bush, but I think Barack would understand why I did. This is not only a man who can rule our country, he is a man I would love to have dinner with and discuss life. I am growing my political backbone, not an easy thing to do, at any age, but at (almost) 37, people expect that you should have known a long time ago what to look for in a leader. I've never voted for a man that lost. My brother laughs and says, "You're the average American voter." My sister, I know, wouldn't laugh. She is a Democrat like a Mama bear--FIERCE. I'm actually starting a third blog, called Stuff N'at, where not only am I going to post all the YouTubes I know are getting annoying on FB because, okay, he won already, but also as a place to talk about growing my political backbone.

More to come.