Carrie and the Campaign Penis

Living Happy

A long time ago, I ran for state rep and happily lost. However, it was one of the biggest things that made me a braver person. I know! I know! I don’t present as very brave and I’m still working on it.

Since people keep thinking that I’m running for things (I am definitely not and rooting on the people who are brave enough to do this), I thought I’d share this story . Some of you may have heard it before. Apologies.

Before I start let me say that my favorite part of running for office was doing doors, which is where you knock on people’s doors and say hello.

This was because:

1. I got to see people I hadn’t seen in a while and hear their stories and listen to them, which is one of my favorite things to do.

2. I got to meet new people and if I was lucky, I got to hear how they thought about things.

Let me also say that my least favorite part of running for office was doing doors.

This was because:

1. I always felt intrusive and I’m a pretty shy person who doesn’t like randomly surprising people (potential introverts) by knocking on their doors.

2. Sometimes people would spit on me (just one) and sometimes I would see a penis that I did not want to see. This is that story.

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Part of how you get people to vote for you is you go meet them. This requires knocking on their doors, petting their dogs and smiling a lot while you introduce yourself. I like smiling. I like dogs. My favorite part was meeting the dogs. I like meeting the people, too, but, like I said, I felt terribly intrusive knocking on their doors.

One of the towns in my district was Otis. You had to drive about 20 minutes from where I lived to get there. There were 596 people in Otis. They are either super rich and live on the lake or they are extremely poor. They are also pretty conservative. And though I was pretty moderate at the time, I presented as super liberal. It was highly doubtful that I was going to win Otis.

Spoiler: I think I did win Otis. Thank you, many years later, Otis.

So, I went up to this trailer on the Otis Road in Otis and there were all these piles of dog poop on the stoop. I stepped around the dog poop. I tried not to breathe in, and I knocked on the door. I didn't hear anything so I started to write on my flyer (we call this a palm card), “SORRY THAT I MISSED YOU.”

Heavy footsteps pounded through the trailer.

There were two doors. The screen door, which had a plastic bottom and a glass top. Then there was the inside door. The inside door opened about six inches and there was this guy...this really REALLY white guy and he was not wearing a shirt and he had about five long, black stringy hairs in the center of his chest. He didn't make eye contact.

Me: Oh. I am so sorry. Did I wake you up?
Pale Guy with the Naked Chest: No. It's cool.
Me: Um. I'm Carrie Jones. I'm running for the State House of Representatives...

I noticed he was still not looking me in the eye.

Me: Are you sure I didn't wake you up?
Pale Guy with the Naked Chest: Yeah. You're running?
Me: Blah. Blah. Blah. Here's my flyer.
Pale Guy with the Naked Chest (opens door, takes flyer): Great.
Me (stepping closer to point out my phone number on the back of the flyer which Pale Guy with the Naked Chest is holding waist high): My number is—Oh!

I had suddenly realized that Pale Guy with the Naked Chest was wearing very large boxers. There was a gaping hole in the very large boxers. There was a half-awake worm-like creature in the gaping hole in Pale Guy with the Naked Chest's boxers. I wondered if I should scream. Stephen King novels flashed into my brain. Then I realized that no, it was not a half-awake worm in Pale Guy with the Naked Chest's boxers, it was, actually, a half-awake penis in Pale Guy with the Naked Chest's boxers.

It was my first campaign penis. It was not my last.

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WHY MEETING NEW PEOPLE MATTERS

The thing is that meeting new people (despite those awkward moments) matters. Even my socially awkward, shy self knows that.

And there’s two big aspects of why that I wanted to quickly hit on.

IT MAKES YOU MORE CONFIDENT

I say that I’m shy. I present as somewhat shy before I get anywhere, but it’s really almost a bit like stage fright. Most of the time, I turn into a raging extrovert when I actually do get to the event or party or door to an absolute stranger’s house.

And the thing is that I know each time I push myself out of that stage fright, I get braver.

Sean Kim writes about this in the Thought Catalog saying,

”It takes guts to meet new people and actually keep the conversation going long enough to become a new friend. This type of practice isn’t just a good life skill, it can also help in other areas as well. For instance, when you are speaking to new potential clients at work or trying to convince your children that they should listen to you, being able to be convincing and persuasive is a skill. Like any other skill, it must be practiced in order for you to get good.”

IT OPENS YOU TO NEW IDEAS

When you meet someone who thinks similarly to you? It can be inspiring. It can make you think more deeply about things you’re passionate about and you get energized. Shaun and I take walks sometimes to just do this. But we know each other.

When I meet someone new who is all excited about something I’m excited about? It’s magic.

But this is true about people who aren’t the same psychographics as me.

The Greater Good writes,

“When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions, and perspectives.

“This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds—think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car. The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender, and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from one another as an engineer and a physicist—and that is a good thing.

“Research on large, innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case.

“For example, business professors Cristian Deszö of the University of Maryland and David Ross of Columbia University studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor’s Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms’ top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms’ “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks.”

Yes, you may stumble sometimes, meet a half-awake worm, but it’s mostly good. Usually. Just don’t look down.

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