My brother Nick entering the District 29 senate race got me to thinking about my own political endeavors.

I think it’s safe to say that I have always been a little odd.  One of the ways this became apparent at an early age is that I was a devoted bookworm.  That might not have been so strange, but my two favorite books as a child were Homer’s “The Illiad & The Odyssey” (which I read three times) and “King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table” (which I read twice.)

All of the time spent reading medieval morality tales and the quiet introspection that followed produced the most chivalrous, idealistic, romantic idiot that ever walked the face of the earth.

I only remember the Elm Springs School holding one election while I went there.  As near as I can tell, it was only to foster interest in the election process, because I don’t remember the Elm Springs School Government ever doing anything.

There were four races- with two candidates in each race, a total of eight kids out of about fifteen were up for election.  I was running for President against Beth Wilson.  For two weeks before the Big Day, we plastered the groaning walls of our two-room schoolhouse with  election posters carefully made with construction paper and crayons.  One or two even had an artists depiction of a particular candidate.

But somehow I got it in my head that it was right and proper, as a sign of good will, to cast your vote for your opponent, which is what I did.  Ms. Wilson, who had probably just finished reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” went ahead and voted for herself like a greedy capitalist.

I lost by one vote.