Tonight I met the candidates.

Tonight I took the chance to attend a "Meet the Candidates" forum for the seat of Deakin. This was sponsored by the Australian Christian Lobby, and while the ACL have copped a bucket of criticism from some of my Christian friends, none of those concerns were evident tonight. Instead the ACL were able to lead this discussion in a way that was open and respectful and inclusive of all candidates, even those whose policies the ACL speak loudly against.

Which leads me to the outstanding aspect of tonight.

Respect.

Simple respect.

There are six candidates hoping to be our representative, and five of them were there tonight with representatives from Liberal, Labor, Greens, Family First, and Australian Christians. The member for the Animal Justice Party was unable to be there. Each was given five minutes to speak, and then there was a break to give attenders a chance to write some questions. Only a few of these questions were able to be put to the candidates due to the time and the number of questions.

I confess that I am not looking at this election with any great hope. I have no trust in either of the main parties - Liberal or Labor. The way the Liberal party have conducted themselves in the last three years has been a massive disappointment. The budget fiascos, terrible slogans, and then the change of leader/treasurer just made me sadder and sadder as the time has rolled on. As this election campaign has progressed, I found that the Labor party offered me a hope of something better, but that balloon has been well and truly popped. And I just can't vote for the Greens.

So I went tonight with a degree of cynicism.

But I have come away encouraged. As I heard these candidates speak, they spoke with great respect for each other. Even though there are significant differences of opinion and policy between some of them, they were able to speak about each other and these differences with respect. If only the leaders and front bench parliamentarians were like this. Maybe I would have more hope.

It didn't answer all my questions, and I'm still not sure which way to vote - and that's a longer discussion - but I am confident that whoever does win the seat of Deakin on Saturday we will have a strong representative for our community.

It's just a shame that their parties are rubbish.

Dark echoes

In 1997, for a whole lot of reasons that don't need reviving here, I found myself in a depressed state. It was painful and long lasting. 

But it is in my past.

Of Mostly.

I know I'm not the happiest of people in the world, and I would describe myself as melancholy, so the fact that I don't jump and clap every morning doesn't worry too much.

However, I do have periods of time when all clouds are lifted and I feel free - free to laugh, free to smile, free to enjoy life.

Today is not that day. 

There are no real reasons for this, although the lack of sunshine might have something to do with it. Some days are just filled with echoes from another time.

And I wait for it to pass.