Papers Are In!

 Well, it is official! I handed in all of my paperwork today during lunch to run as a candidate for Library Trustee. I'm nervous and excited all at once! It's going to be exciting to show how much I'm interested in doing the right thing - doing the right work - for the town. I believe that there is a strong need for that in the world today, where so much of what is done is doing the "quick" thing, or the "easy" thing, or still worse the "selfish" thing. I'm certainly not perfect, but I think as long as you align yourself towards those forward goals, even if you fall, at least you'll be falling in that direction. 

Anyway, a potentially long post shorter, now comes the hard work. Now I actually have to put up a campaign! Fortunately, I made a lot of friends along the way getting these signatures, and I'm looking forward to working with those new allies.

 I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow at 12:30, I'm going to go sit in the library and wait for some invited people to sign my nomination papers for the position of Trustee. I imagine a question that could crop up is, well, why wait in the library? Why not wait at home? I've been reading a fair bit recently on the topic of "third spaces" and how they are a dwindling thing in today's world. Third spaces are places that are not home, not work (or school, if you're younger), where you can just...exist. Specifically, where you can just exist without having to pay money, buy something, rent something, subscribe to something, or sign up for a free email of something (that you'll inevitably end up paying for!). 

 For generations, third spaces were physical, and they had some kind of other purpose as well. There were malls, sidewalks, parks, just to name a few. Over time, though, those diminished. Libraries serve that purpose now in many places. It's something I'd love to see return more. Meeting up with a friend...at the library. Having a club...at the library. It's just such a perfect and conducive atmosphere! 

So, briefly, I'm excited. I look forward to seeing everyone who has come to sign, and also anyone else that I meet along the way. 

 Now, I'm also excited because 3/16 I'll be going to see the Dropkick Murphys, but I'll share more of that after the event, since I could go on and on right now ahead of time! 

Facebook? No...no. Twitter? Also, no, I can't say as I'm interested in that. YouTube? Maybe...but I'm admittedly not the most photogenic. Blogger. Isn't Blogger the early-2000's blog site? That let's you write all of your thoughts in a completely unrestricted way? Yes. That's the one. I'm going to go with that. If there's one thing I can do, it's write. 

Writing needs a "why", though. I say that all the time when I'm teaching rhetoric. I'm writing this blog because I'm starting a run for Library Trustee in my town - Hanover. This is going to be the primary place where I post information. 

Who am I? I'm Steve. I've worked and lived in town for a long time. I've been loosely involved in the political world of the town for a while now. I have three kids, a beautiful wife, and a nice little place in our beautiful town. We're all big readers, and we use the library often. It's my goal to help our library become the best that it possibly can be.

We're still some distance away from March 28th, when the signature pages are due for the candidates, but I'm excited to do a sort of "soft announcement" for the campaign here.