I am crazy, crazy, crazy about Barack Obama. My boyfriend Matt and I go onto his website every couple days and watch videos of his speeches and blurbs about his stances on various topics.

I read a recent New York Times Op-Ed article about the Obama Phenomenon. Basically, Obama has been blowing away the skeptics with his message of hope, unity, and change. At first many of those skeptics thought Obama's message was naive and fanciful. But now--just look at what happened in Iowa. A mid-western state full of mostly-white people turned out to vote for Obama, a black candidate with a Muslim name and only four years as a senator under his belt. It's unbelievable.

Obama's creating something new that I'm totally enamored with: a political campaign of unity and positivity. He's encouraging politicians to speak positively to each other, to not get caught up in mud-slinging. He's concerned about the environment, health care, and mending broken ties with other countries. He sounds and feels authentic, real, passionate, and alive--a great mix of JFK and MLK Jr. We need a leader like Barack after the last seven years. It's so refreshing from the rhetoric of us versus them, good versus evil, that I've heard for the last seven, painful, years.

So now I'm more inspired about the political scene than I have been in years. Like so many other young people that Obama has inspired, I've decided to get more involved in politics myself. I volunteered to be our precinct captain, and I'm excited to caucus on Feb. 5th as well. I'll also be--if I'm in the country--volunteering at the Democratic National Convention here in Denver in August. I can't wait. More than anything, I'm just excited to believe in something again, to be moved by a leader my generation has never seen, but has desperately needed.

I'll end with this great quote from the NY Times article I mentioned above:

However this election turns out, Mr. Obama can be credited with a great achievement. He has drawn tons of people, and especially young people, into the political process. More than anyone else, he has re-energized that process and put some of the fun back into politics. And he’s done it by appealing openly and consistently to the best, rather than the worst, in us.

Obama '08!

Get out and caucus for your candidate this year! Just go to their website and contact a local volunteer.

Well, it's ironic that my last real blog entry was about writing nonfiction--and in particular about the "joys" of it. Right about the time I wrote my last entry, I began to really struggle with my decision to write my book about the Philippines. I was having a grand ol' time writing about my previous three trips, but when it came time to write about my most recent experience there, I hit a wall. A big wall. A big, brick, solid wall. And that's how I broke my nose.

Seriously though (I only broke it metaphorically)...I struggled with writing about my experience so much that I began to hate writing, to despise it actually. Usually I enjoy writing in my voice, I get a kick out of relating an event and putting my own particular spin on it, but this time I felt like I was pushing it, like I was prematurely giving birth, and the story just wasn't ready to be born.

I began to agonize over my decision: Do I write this book about the Philippines, or do I work on an entirely different book, one I've been wanting to write for almost two years? The one I've been wanting to write is young adult fiction, quite a stretch from my two year master's degree in nonfiction, in addition to my half a year researching a nonfiction book in the Philippine rice terraces.

Well, here's what I decided. I'm not ready to write my book about the Philippines. And while I won't push my personal writing agenda onto other people, I will say that I think a book needs to be written with some distance from a topic or event, and I don't feel I have enough yet. While there is a freshness in the writing of a just-experienced event, I have to wonder: has the writer had time to discover the meaning of the event or series of events? Has the writer had time to discover which moments were most important to the over-arcing theme to be conveyed?

I decided that I could relate the entirety of my five months in the Philippines, but how would I pick and choose the important moments to relate if I didn't know the overall idea I was trying to get across, if I didn't have some distance from the experience to have a larger vision of that time of my life? I want to have some wisdom when I convey a story, some perspective. I think that's what makes nonfiction compelling for me--the double layer. The story, and the perspective on it, the wisdom gained.

But more importantly, I wasn't enjoying myself. And writing, while often a struggle, must at some level be a joy. Otherwise, why sacrifice the stable paycheck? Why risk spending years writing a novel/memoir that may never be published? Writing must be a joy in and of itself, and if I'm not enjoying myself at all, then I will never keep the momentum and discipline I need to finish the book.

So...now, onto some young adult fiction. I'm working on this novel I'm totally excited about, it's almost completely outlined (well, the first one is outlined, but the other two to follow are the ones I haven't finished yet), and I'm enjoying myself in the process. I felt a little weird delving head-on into fiction after so much nonfiction training, but ultimately, I went to school to be a better writer. And as long as I love what I'm doing and feel like it's meaningful for me, isn't that all that matters?