Today

Today I rode the bus with a blue ironing board into the city. People sort of half smiled at me. Got to the place I had previously decided to register voters when a nice police man told me I needed a permit to be on the square. So I picked up everything and sought new territory.

At a street corner, a voice said, "Hello girl with an ironing board!" And I met him. Name was Breece. He worked for Green Peace, an organization devoted to saving the environment. "Every day a football field of the boreal forest is chopped down to make kleenex. And one box of kleenex took 90 years to grow," he told me. And his kindness couldn't be shrugged away so as he led me to the next hoppin' corner I agreed to save the planet with him.

Registered 9 new voters on that corner. Met a Pete and a John and some European teenagers (all of whom cheered over my Obama pin!). Gave away oreos and humored many with my blue ironing board. I couldn't not smile. Oregonians are so fabulous. People gave me the thumbs up all day. Several people checked in on me. "How's business?," they'd ask after walking back my way. One man told me my set up was the best he'd seen in 40 years. Maybe he just thought I was cute. But maybe it had something to do with the character of an ironing board and a hand made sign, a big smile and a plate of oreos melting in the sun.

It's grass roots. It's the change coming from the bottom up. And today I couldn't help but think of the future (something I'm trying really hard not to do), when I can tell my grandchildren that I stood on street corners with a blue ironing board, registering voters to reclaim our country. When I can say I volunteered with the Barack Obama campaign and the children think wow and know in their hearts that that means something special.

Journeying home, I caught a refracted bit of myself in the bus window smiling about it. Ah, today. Not just a turn of earth but a time of life. A time of life never to be forgotten. A time of life to ever love.