What does Iowa mean to you?

Perhaps you are one of those people who are addicted to watching every news segment devoted to “Election 2012.”  You have read up, you know which pundits you like, who you agree with and who you will be watching just so you can mock them.  Or perhaps you are one of those people who woke up and said, January 3^rd, what will happen today giving no thought to Iowa.  Or perhaps you are somewhere in the middle, you may or may not live in Iowa, you will keep an eye on what happens out there tonight but it will neither make nor break your day.  And then again, maybe some of you are wondering, why is this chick from Memphis, TN talking about Iowa?  So tonight is when the citizens of Iowa go to caucus and they vote on who they feel should be the candidate for the Republican Party.  Iowa is a coveted vote because it the first actual people driven vote in the election season, this is not a poll, it is a vote.  It is the thing that candidates put a lot of emphasis on, and not to be outdone the news media also falls all over themselves to cover Iowa.  Perhaps though the greatest thing to come out of Iowa is a sense that one must become invested in the concerns of the nation.  I have been reading through the quotes of Seneca, and the one that seems to apply most to the events of today is this, “a well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.”  As I reflected on this statement the wisdom contained within continued to become more inspiriting.  I wonder how different our election season would be if we had a “well governed appetite” for what is going on in our nation.  Perhaps we could all commit to that.  We could commit to not allowing sensationalism to sweep us away, we will not become gluttons of the opinions of pundits and media personalities.  How would election 2012 be different if we took the time to evaluate what is critically important to us and which candidate best represents that?  Imagine if we took a role in our government and instead of allowing it to happen to us, we became the creator of the nation we desire to live in.  Perhaps instead of looking for a single person to “feed” our nation what it “needs” we choose to become the solution that we long for?  What if we helped out our neighbors and changed our communities because we became involved?  What if we cared for the sick and elderly and allowed our friends to help when we are feeling overwhelmed?  What if we cared for orphans and widows instead of expecting a program to be the cure?  What if we developed our own appetite for a healthy society and worked to develop it more fully?  So when you turn on the news tonight and they announce who has won caucus – think about how you can govern your own appetite to increase the greatness of our liberty.

Tell me what you came up with, I would love to hear how you are becoming involved in these our United States of America.