The Importance of Presence

The other day, someone told me something that stuck with me.

 

After listening politely, he said: “Honestly, the most compelling thing you’ve said isn’t any of this. It’s just that you’re here.”

 

He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t ideological. He didn’t even have strong feelings about the incumbent. What he said next was simple and devastating in its clarity: “I don’t really know what he’s done. I just know I’ve never met him.”

 

That’s been coming up more and more at the doors.

 

People aren’t always looking for a perfect argument or a perfectly aligned ideology. They’re looking for evidence that someone takes their community seriously enough to show up. To knock. To listen. To stand in the cold and have the conversation anyway.

 

Presence isn’t symbolic. It’s foundational.

 

If someone wants your vote but can’t be bothered to meet you, that tells you something even if you can’t quite articulate it yet. And when someone does show up, day after day, it cuts through cynicism in a way no talking point ever could.

 

I believe campaigns are a preview of how someone intends to govern. If you don’t show up now, when it’s hard and inefficient and uncomfortable, you probably won’t show up later either.

 

So we keep knocking. We keep listening. We keep being present.

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