Good morning and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread where we try to get together every Saturday to provide an outlet for discussion and news that effects the region and North Carolina. We hope this group serves to reinvigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with in the political process. We hope, through this community, that we can do a better job of leveraging our orange passion for progressive politics to help elect more and better Democrats.
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Randall is out of town this weekend, and he's asked me to post a diary. So, I thought I would share some thoughts about the group.
In mid-April my focus changed significantly. I stopped playing music for almost two months, which was a very long time for me to go without playing. I dropped my active participation in a local sustainability group. And I stopped reading Daily Kos. All of my focus has been on my path; and those of you who read my Sunday diaries are familiar with that.
When we had our last meet-up, I asked Randall to take over the Saturday Asheville diaries. He said he would be happy to do that for me. However, as we both already knew, his schedule is such that getting out diaries every Saturday can be difficult, as he often works on Saturdays, and often he's working out of town.
So, I thought I would take this opportunity to ask if any of you DKos Asheville members would like to help out by writing a Saturday dairy from time to time. If you would, please let Randall know. SteelerGrrl wrote a great DKos Asheville diary two weeks ago, and almost all of you have posted diaries to Daily Kos before.
You can write on anything you want; the main thing is just to have a diary up so that we have a place for the group's members to post comments throughout the day. Having a diary up keeps us in touch with each other; it keeps us connected. You don't have to spend time doing research or posting pictures; this doesn't need to be difficult. It's just nice to know that someone's going to have a diary up each Saturday. So let Randall know when you would like to take a turn.
One thing that I realized from our voter registration project was that, while we have a great group here, geographically we're actually kind of spread out a bit. So doing something like the voter registration project just wasn't practical. But the Saturday diaries are a bit easier to attend. And of course the quarterly meetups are something worth the time to travel into Asheville to make.
I'm still here. This is a great group of people; and the meetups, spending time with each of you, have all been wonderful. And I'm still doing the Sunday DKos Sangha diaries and attending the Monday night DKos Sangha group meditation diaries. And I've been reading and commenting on the DKos Asheville diaries as well.
But I'm not focused on politics right now (though I did notice the big upset in Virginia last Tuesday). Obviously, I do still think that participation in the political process is important. And I still think that working for social, economic, and environmental justice is important. But the work of bringing about change can't just be political; it can't just be about elections. Perhaps the most important element needed in the process of bringing about real change in our world is the interior work that we do. And that's where my focus is right now.
So, if you can, kosmail Randall and tell him you would like to do a diary. He's juggling enough things at the moment without having this up in the air as well.
And have a wonderful day today!