Responsibilities....

A week and a half out from a presidential election and we are all weighing our responsibilities right now. Responsibility to vote. The responsibility to vote for the best possible outcome. The balancing of responsibility for others versus what could personally benefit you. 

Or at least we should be. 

I don't have a strong feeling that everyone is doing it this way. Some are, for sure, I...I was going to say I'm blessed or I'm grateful but that's not right and I'll explain why in a second but let me try that again. The majority of the people in my life balance decisions based not only on their own needs but on the cost and benefit to everyone around them. The reason why blessed or grateful doesn't work here is because I've cultivated my friend group. I don't tend to keep people around who are self centered. If you cannot put your own needs aside because there is a better outcome for everyone if you do, then I have a fundamental difference in moral code from you and I don't hang around.

But this isn't about that. 

Not exactly. 

See today we were supposed to be on a plane on our way to Detroit Rock City! Woo! then on to Ann Arbor and points surrounding. We knew we were in trouble all last week. So many hacking coughs around us at the resort. But most of them from kids and sometimes that happens when they get a snootful of sea water. So we were hopeful. Until we got on the plane and cough, cough, hack, hack, big wet nose blowing. We crossed our fingers and hoped.

Brent fell first. Exhausted, bad headache he couldn't shake. Small pull in his throat. Then on Wednesday I got the first dull head thump. We did the math on when he got sick, how long it had been and how likely I was to recover before Friday morning. We made the call to cancel the trip to Michigan. 

In the before times we might not have. And honestly, he's fine now, and I've just got the remnants of it. We didn't end up with the chest cold and sinus thing that everyone around us had. Fought it off and ended up just slightly sick for a few days. But...

Part of the trip back was to see his cousin who is undergoing chemotherapy right now and to see his first cousin twice removed who made her debut 7 weeks ago (four weeks early). Not big strong immune systems going on there. It absolutely wasn't worth the risk. Something that is mild and easily fought off for us could be catastrophic for them. 

We are responsible to the people we love to take care of them as best as we can. 

We (Brent and I) believe we are responsible to society as a whole to do the best that we can as well. Part of that was packing masks just in case we got sick while we were in Hawaii so we could protect the people around us on the plane ride home. (Masks keep your germs to yourself) Brent said he was tempted to pull down the suitcase and start handing them out but was afraid we didn't have enough since we only packed a few.

Another part of that responsibility is in the way we choose to donate. What charities get our money. We do our due diligence and make sure that they spend the majority of the money on helping people not on administrative costs. 

And yes, we do it in the way we vote. Who is going to do the most amount of good and the least amount of harm?

Sometimes it's easy. Cut and dried. 

Like this election. 

We are a week and a half away. If you haven't already voted make sure you do. And do so holding in your head and in your heart what the best possible outcome is for the greatest number of people. 

Where does your responsibility lie?