Elections stay Abstract

Today there was a rather important regional election in Germany (in its biggest state, and seen as an indicator for parliamentary elections next year). We had one of these rare moments when our kids are allowed to watch a bit of TV (they watch an occasional youtube animation or video, but otherwise dont ever watch TV). My youngest kept commentating with "toroo" and lifting his hand up, which is his elephant act (I had shown him some zoo elephants on youtube a few days ago, so I think he associated TV with this). And we explained to the girls who the people on TV were (female reporters, female head of the winning social democrats, female head of the coalition partner greens, female head of the left party - a lot of women there!). We've watched a few election results with the kids, and they've been to vote with us, so they have some kind of idea what elections are about. I wish I would have more mental energy to think about their importance and implications - especially such elections as the recent ones in France and Greece. I follow these in the papers, but wish I would have more mental space to think about their implications - and realize that these really are not abstract things happening out there, but have concrete, significant effects on people and their well-being.