My first vote

Today I cast my vote. I participated in the municipal elections as a South African citizen. That's a first for me! I became a citizen at the end of 2008 and received my ID book a few days too late to register to vote in the 2009 national elections, so this was my first opportunity to participate in our democracy in this way.

Curtis wrote a challenging post which I'd like to quote from on this, my first voting day:

You are not politically engaged and involved simply if you vote once every couple of years. You are politically engaged if you are a part of building a community, country (and indeed a world) where human (and animal and plant) life can flourish. Your voting should only be a moment in the lifelong journey towards building the ’Beloved Community’, a place of equity, faith, hope and love.

So even though this is a momentous occassion in my life, and my heart beat a little faster as I stood in that little voting booth and made my mark, I hope that prior to this day and after this day, I have been and will continue to be politically engaged and continue to build the 'beloved community' Curtis speaks of.

To the left is a photo of me eating celebratory icecream at Lollipop Roadhouse with friends after having cast my vote. In the background you can see what a beautiful Autumn day it is and perhaps its evident how content I felt at that moment, to be in the warm South African sun on a day like today.