The person at the heart of today's post has appeared on our blog before: you may recall that she "crafts to find the balance." She's now running for the state legislature, not in my district. If I lived out in the swamps of suburbia, I would certainly vote for her, and I'd even let her put a sign in my yard. I hope she wins her race. I truly do not wish her ill in any way, bless her heart.
A couple months ago, she called asking me for a campaign donation, and just last week she sent a message to me and to Lola asking if we wanted to "co-host" an event being thrown for her by some other lawyers in town. I wasn't sure what she meant by that, so I inquired further: basically, she just wants me to give her money before the event so she can identify me as a supporter.
I know candidates have to raise money and I don't begrudge her hustling. I realize that for some people, political involvement is a hobby, but I'm not one of them. I'm not in the habit of giving money to candidates who don't live in my district unless I really believe in them and want to show my enthusiastic support. For instance, I gave money to my partner who is running for city council, not in my district - because he is awesome and I love him.
There's the rub. I know she is smart and hard-working; I respect that she does very good work for society in her day job; I'm sure that she will be a good legislator if she manages to get elected despite being a very crunchy liberal running against a conservative 20-year incumbent in the swamps of suburbia. Do I think she is awesome and love her? No, I do not.
She was my best friend for the first three years of high school, but she spent our entire senior year blowing off every effort I made to spend time with her, in favor of her private school beau and (even after they broke up) his cool friends. Once we graduated, I didn't hear from her again until the first day of our bar review class, when she greeted me like a long-lost pal. I was polite that day. In later weeks, I allowed her to join my study group (which included Mr. Twinks). I even did some volunteer legal work for her in her first job at a worthy local nonprofit. But it's been more than twenty years since I would have identified her as a friend.
I know high school was a really long time ago. On the one hand, I think I've done pretty well at moving on to date. On the other hand, I've come to realize that I really resent this person - who was responsible for one of the most painful and unpleasant times of my life and has never acknowledged her really sh!tty behavior, let alone made any attempt to apologize - asking me for money and a public show of support.
I can't decide if this is silly on my part. If a high school boyfriend had dumped me after treating me really badly, never apologized, and then 20 years later came around asking me to donate to his political campaign, would it be reasonable to laugh in his face? Is this different?
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