Your Voice

What will you be doing one cold day in January-the January after next, that is? January of 2017...
Odds are you'll be going about your life, worrying about mundane stuff like work, vacuuming, dishes, the laundry. You'll be living your life, as aware (or as unaware, as the case may be) as you are right now of what's going on in the world around you. You might wake up that morning and think that the world looks the same as it ever has...you might wake up thinking as you may right now that the world takes care of itself and that you're apart from that, that your life will go on...
 What you may not realize is that things will have changed and that by that point, it may well be too late for you to wake up and realize how important your voice is--your voice, that thing you've been using to tell everyone how little politics matters, how annoying it is to see political posts on Facebook when your time could be better spent doing important things like posting meaningless platitudinous memes and cute cat videos on social media, that thing you use to have mundane conversations about the weather, that you use to yell at your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, children when you're upset, that thing you use to tell people who you see day in and day out what you need...that thing you use to let people know when things aren't okay, what it is that you need in order to make them right-your voice, that thing you use to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you and that they matter, that you use to fix the relationships that need fixing. So why oh why do you insist on using this powerful, beautiful voice of yours to tell the world how little it matters? If your voice truly didn't matter, then how is it that it's worked so well for all of these years as you've sat by trying and succeeding to convince yourself that it's meaningless? Your voice has gotten you to where you are in life. It's allowed you to take and make opportunities. It's allowed you to build your world, make your life what you want it to be. Can you imagine what a difference your voice would make added to so many others? And all you have to do is show up at your polling place-take fifteen minutes out of your day once every couple of years to do that.