Doin' Yer Duty

So I went and voted in the primaries on this Super Duper Fat Tuesday. Did you?

Now I'm as cynical as the next person when it comes to government and politicians and what have you, but there's still something about going to the polls and voting that gives me a strange feeling of happiness. Maybe it's all the Cold War propaganda I grew up with, or maybe I paid more attention in 9th Grade Civics than I strictly should have. But when I was walking in there, I just got this buoyant feeling of almost-joy, like I was doing something important, something that I not only should do, but must, and the fact that I was doing it made me glad.

I got the feeling that other voters--some of them, anyway--felt the same. Everyone I saw in the parking lot returned my unprovoked grin with one of their own. People were chatty in the line, striking up conversations with complete strangers--not about politics (that I heard), but just pleasantries, friendliness, good old-fashioned neighborliness. It's something you don't often see anymore (when was the last time you invited the fellow behind you in the Express Lane at Kroger into a conversation that didn't have to do with whether that bag of peanuts was yours or his?), and it was nice. And as I say, I think it bespoke a general feeling of being a part of something, however naive that may seem to some.

By a stroke of luck I arrived at my polling station at almost the same time as my wife. We hadn't planned it--I came during my lunch hour, and she just happened to be there--and the sight of my 3-year-old daughter wearing her mom's "I Voted!" sticker on her little pink hoodie just had me beaming. It was a lovely picture, and made me baselessly optimistic about the future--not only of my family, but of the country. Sappy, perhaps, but true.

I'm sure this good feeling will fade as the harsh realities of modern democracy make themselves more and more visible in the coming months. But for now I'm going to enjoy it, and you should too.

Go vote.