I saw some Republicans yesterday.

In fact, I saw hundreds, maybe millions.  I was in the middle of an improv everywhere stunt, except the Republican canvassers didn’t sing show tunes, or freeze in place for five minutes.   They were real, and they all wore navy blue polo shirts and planted themselves at regular intervals down the central corridor of the Holland farmers market.

For a God time call...

I knew that this was a super-conservative area of the country, but as I walk around town, I find it hard to believe that the majority of people around me can tolerate the extra ten bars of volume of Fox News. I want to reach out and touch them and ask them to tell me why, but I think they’re telling me already.  I found a flyer on the ground next to my car today. Without my glasses I live in my own happy haze, and I saw it, thought “Great! Someone wants to have a good time! Me too!”  Then I picked it up.

I’ve never lived somewhere where religion defines the community.  For instance, last night I went to a bar to watch Michigan football with a couple folks I’ve met.  I sinned right off the bat by asking if it was University of or State, but was allowed to repent and followed along with the game, cheering when other people clapped, slapping my hands and yelling out a: “here we go” approximately every 7 minutes to keep up appearances.

I’m waiting for the iPhone app: how to be a sports fan when you already feel awkward for being the new person.  Think of it – tips about match-ups, key games, things to shout at bars.  I’m not thinking the boring statistics trivia either.  None of the: “this is the fourth highest ratio of players to fans at a game in the in the Midwest in the last 11 years.”  I can listen to a semi-circle of large men wearing earmuff headsets for no apparent reason if I need data.  I’m talking good, juicy information.  Tidbits that are entirely irrelevant to the game that I can weave into sentences with strangers.  “I’m so glad Jones doesn’t like tuna. I don’t like tuna either.  Go TEAM!”

The boys in blue at the farmers market were collecting signatures for congressman Pete Hoekstra’s (R-Michigan, headquarters 25 yards from my door) bid for governor.  Now, how many of you walk faster and prepare excuses and faux-polite ‘no thank yous’ in advance of seeing any sort of person with a clip board that might ask you to sign a petition of any sort?  These people are a nuisance, right? Wrong in Michigan.  People were lined up five deep to scribble on these clipboards.  It was the most non-presidential election excitement I have ever seen. I wanted to sign just so I could be part of something and yell, “Go TEAM!”

Too bad my teams weren’t playing.  I don’t mix my politics and religion, but I have no problem mixing design with business, or art with geology.  Why is this? As designers we know the power of leveraging one discipline with another.  A large portion of American conservatives have figured out the same.  Wow!  What are the qualities of a successful pairing of disciplines / disciples?  What two groups, when joined, could really make a difference in the world, tear it down, or make us laugh?

So yes, now I live amongst the people that voted for Bush, but they’ve inspired me in a way I didn’t see possible.