Looking To The Future

Currently Listening To :: Stars :: Simply Red

A friend asked me over this APEC weekend if I was interested in politics, what my views were on certain candidates, what I thought of their issues. While I have some knowledge of my local electorate, the candidates, and their general stance on key issues, I wouldn't say I could have a in-depth conversation about them.

At that point it occurred to me that the fact that Australians as a nation are forced to vote, while it is optional in the US presents us with a very different climate leading into an election. If we were living in America, we couldn't help but know the issues, the millions of dollars that power electoral campaign juggernauts spinning and ducking, positioning and pandering. Here in Australia, the media activity is concentrated closer to the date, hoping to catch apathy before it falls to a wasted vote.

So in a society where consumerism is inescapable and product placement saturating our daily existence, the onus should be on us to learn more about making an informed decision when it comes to our leadership. At dinner on Saturday, we were discussing how complaining is a democratic citizens right - the freedom to complain about whatever because we are just that, free. What we failed to raise was that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. Perhaps it was because mains got in the way.

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There was a time when I wanted to be a teacher. To be able to nurture and prepare the youth of today for the trials of tomorrow. Times when I wanted to be a public servant, to work for something beyond just a salary. Something more then just me.

A part of me thinks that it's too late to change things - after years of searching for what I am happy with, what I wanted, it would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face if I threw it all away. I used to think about things in absolute terms. Political stance, relationship ideals, career objectives. No longer. Compromise may seem like a four letter word to some, but then being in a state of happiness has never been an absolute concept either.

So I look to the future with a sense of hope - the hope that I can incorporate more of what I've wanted in my life without the need to give up what I already have. In short, claiming responsibility for my own happiness.

On the eve of a new decade for me, on the beginning of a new chapter in my life, on the months before the upcoming federal election, this is what I would have liked to hear from a candidate I would vote for. This is what I'd like to tell myself in my moments of deepest self-doubt. This is what I want echoing in my mind when I think about my future...

I wanted to start this journey in the place where it all started for me. Soon we will be inundated by the polls, and the punditry, and the prognostications of all the nonesense that goes with our national political campaigns.

But none of that matters. This is the place that matters, because everyday, children walk into this school house to glimpse their futures. To ask for hope. They may not know they need it yet, but they do.

And I am here to tell you that hope is real.

In a life of trials, in a world of challenges, hope is real. In a country where families go without health care, where some go without food, some don't even have a home to speak of, hope is real.

In a time of global chaos, and instability, where our faiths collide as often as our weapons hope is real. Hope is what gives us the courage to take on our greatest challenges, to move forward...together.

We live in cynical times...I know that. But hope is not up for debate!

There is such a thing as false science, there is such a thing as false promises, I am sure I will have my share of false starts in this campaign, but there IS no such thing as false hope.

There is only hope.