Friday, August 31, 2012

Fresh Air

Hello, Nation.

I have to confess, I don't really know how I want to begin this blog post. After all, I'm a little out of practice. The provincial election was held 130 days ago, and I've written one - one - political blog post since.

It's not as though I haven't been paying attention. I have been. I've been talking politics with friends - though not nearly as much as I used to. I've been getting together with the #yycpolitweet crew now and again for wing nights, or just to poke and prod each other a bit. But to sit down and actually write has been very hard for me.

The truth is, I think I needed a break from it all. I didn't really take the break that I needed after running in the Calgary-Fish Creek PC nomination and finishing 2nd. There wasn't time... races needed covering, I was trying to provide analysis and content for 3 political websites, I was volunteering on multiple campaigns (all of them winners, incidentally)... I didn't have the time I needed to step back, and fall back in love with politics again on my own terms.

After the low of losing the nomination, and the high of helping some good people get elected, and the exhaustion of trying to cover all the races I wasn't actively a part of, I needed to take some time to focus on myself. One of the questions I had to ask myself was, "is this something you can still get excited about?".

So there I was: Joey Oberhoffner, The Enlightened Savage, the eternal political optimist... trying to find his mojo. Trying to figure out if I still had a passion for this thing that has driven me since I was a teenager, dreaming of having a chance to respectfully debate a worthy opponent about an issue of local importance in front of a room of my fellow engaged and open-minded citizens.

I still had opinions... but did I have the passion?

A lot of long walks and quiet contemplation later, I have the answer.

Emphatically, it's a YES.

I will stay involved.


I will keep writing.

I will keep holding these people to account - these people who I tried to serve alongside - because dammit, we DO deserve better than we've been getting from the people we elect.

And if I seem a bit more Savage than you've gotten used to... blame it on the fresh air.