My Two Cents

I don’t mean the parties for celebrations – birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. I don’t mean a college that students attend.

I’m talking about political parties and the Electoral College. Why do we even have political parties? They weren’t needed in high school for student council elections, why do we need them after we turn 18 and can vote in local and national elections?

No need to waste time with party platform committees or platforms. No need to raise money or contribute to “the party.” No need to be a party loyalist. Just figure out what you think and vote for a person based on what they support.

Residents of some states know what I’m talking about. I located some percentages from 2018 when Maine had a higher percentage of independent voters than party affiliates – same for Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Maine’s Senator Angus King is an independent and he was also previously the Governor, without a party affiliation.

Decades back, independent Senator King was a Democrat. There can be confusion as people switch around like Bloomberg who was a Republican, an independent, and a Democrat, or Bernie who is an independent but ran as a Democrat. Really, why bother with the labels?

I think some people erroneously think that “independent” is yet another political party. It is not.

Dismantle the Electoral College. (Easier said than done since it’s in the Constitution.) Let the popular vote rule. Only Maine and Nebraska allow electors of different parties. Others determine electors based on a simple majority (>50%) of the popular vote. Winner takes all. And beware, there have been years when an elector did not vote in line with the popular vote, they voted how they personally wanted to vote. One year an elector even cast a blank ballot. Some states impose fines for not voting in line with the winning party but why isn’t that a crime? I’m sure anyone who is an elector has plenty of money to pay a fine. A crime? OK – we could try restorative justice instead of making them serve time.

I called Sister Kathryn earlier this week on one of those days when I stayed inside all day due to unhealthy air – full of smoke and particulates. She lives up in Portland and the air quality was even worse up there, and the fires closer to population centers.

The Santa Sabina Center in San Rafael is a former novitiate for Dominican Sisters which was turned into a retreat center. My annual visits to Santa Sabina, dating back to 2016, were to attend long weekends for Proprioceptive Wrting workshops. Sorry to say there are no workshops this year. It was at Santa Sabina that I first saw the Sophia Center’s Hearthstone set and book and bought my own in the gift shop. Sister Kathryn runs the Sophia Center up in Portland.

At our house, we each select a Hearthstone most days and read the commentary. I usually put mine on my desk – the message for today is “balance.” I liked the Hearthstones so much, I ordered some sets for friends and family. I called the Sophia Center for assistance with one of my orders and Kathryn answered the phone herself. After she assisted me, we talked about other things, like how she came to make the Hearthstones, and, her being a Sister, it was no surprise there was a spiritual component. Before we hung up, she suggested an author I should read and ended with “call any time.”

Since then, I have bought two books by the author she suggested, one just released, which I had pre-ordered, and it was a challenge to comprehend. The author went into levels, rays, realms, scales, worlds – Eckhart, Guirdjieff, Teilhard de Chardin, Rilke, Rumi, the Bible and more. The book is only 193 pages so it was a bit much to take in.

I called Sister Kathryn to see if she’d read the just released book and she hadn’t yet done so. I told her about some of the content and that got her talking: Cathars, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gnostics, and more. She suggested additional reading. She said whatever I got from reading the book was what I needed. I didn’t need to understand everything, all at once.

After we hung up, I ordered the book for her. I’ll wait a few weeks and call her back and hear her insights, maybe gain a better understanding.