Tired of Politics?

News organizations are in the final push of 21 days until the presidential election. In some regards, I've been tired of reading about the political scene for weeks. The printed election ads are stuffed into my mailbox and dominate the news media.

Political science was one of my majors (along with journalism) for my undergraduate work. I've had a life-long interest in politics and studied it for many years. I take many different magazines and groaned to see the thick October 13th issue of The New Yorker covered politics.

Yet I found the issue fascinating and read it cover to cover. The range of stories and depth of coverage was well worth the reading time. If you don't get the magazine, I encourage you to pick it up on your news stand and read it because the diversity will surprise you.

In particular, I want to encourage you to read The Oracle, The many lives of Arianna Huffington which is available online. Lauren Collins has written an in depth-profile of Huffington and the New Yorker does a masterful job of showing the diversity in her personality and experiences. Even the photograph of Huffington (also online) is revealing. Notice she's holding her Blackberry--and the article tells us that it is one of three that she uses constantly. I love the varied picture of Huffington that you gain reading this story. She's not perfect (none of us are). Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you can gain something for your writing life if you study these types of personality profiles.

Finally no matter who you are supporting for the Presidential Election, I encourage you to be praying for the results. I've started using the daily emails from the Presidential Prayer Team. My only objection is the small print they are using for their web page. Each day, I've been cutting and pasting the material into a Word document then increasing the size of the typeface so it can be easily read. I've appreciated the focus of the prayers and connection to Scripture--and hopefully you will as well.

Like many seasons, we will soon move into something different for the news media focus.