I confess I’m very much looking forward to the next couple weeks of state primaries and caucuses. Not that there is any one candidate I’m real excited about… it’s more like anticipating March Madness when- going into it- you have no idea who will be left standing. I’ve even wished that I could be in Iowa tonight to participate in a caucus, which must be a fascinating experience.

That desire wained a bit after reading a note my aunt Tammy (who pastors a great church in Mason City, Iowa) posted on Facebook yesterday. Here’s a bit of it:

OK… this is getting ridiculous. Iowa, being the first state to caucus, is currently being inundated with an avalanche of political promotion. I can’t wait for Thursday when I anticipate we can start shoveling out from under this storm.

On the bright side, if you live here chances are you can personally meet, greet, have your picture taken with, whatever…any future president or almost president.

On the dark side, you get a very realistic picture of the astronomical investments made in campaigning … and frankly I am starting to get ticked off with amount of colorful paper ads I am recycling (do you hear the sound of a rain forest felled?), the number of recorded phone messages I have accumulated on my answering machine every day, and now 2 young people driving up my driveway and knocking on my door to see if I know where to go to caucus (and yes, I did resist telling them where to go), and then watching them have to maneuver out of my long driveway (which included backing over my lawn several times on their way out).

So, maybe watching the hoopla from the predictable confines of Illinois isn’t so bad after all.