Have you seen hope lately? I have. On Tuesday evening when I headed out to my caucus meeting, I didn’t necessarily expect much. Certainly we had heard more about this process that we ever had but that still didn’t prepare me for the experience. As I headed south on Hwy. 52 toward Simley High School, suddenly the traffic came to a halt two exits before. Inch by inch, lights streaming, we made our way to the exit, into the parking lots, onto side streets, into any lot available for cars. People quickly exited their vehicles and crossed a very busy street, sometimes dodging cars and creating what could have been a very dangerous situation. But, I am happy to say,civility prevailed. The excitement along the street was palpable. It only intensified as the doors opened.

Once inside the school people crowded around maps of their neighborhoods, looked for signs with room numbers for our precincts. Neighbors waved at one another as they were jostled down the hallways. Inside the classrooms…which never seem to visibly change…we sat in desks. I looked around the room. People of all ages sat or lined the walls, standing. Parents with infants and toddlers in strollers squeezed in beside those for whom parenting was a very distant memory. I was flanked by two young women I knew to be twenty years old. In front of me a young teacher from my children’s middle school turned to greet me. Across the room people stood to share their names, their resolutions, their passions. We placed our small squares of paper with our choice for a presidential candidate in an ordinary green envelope.

There have been many reports complaining of chaos, of those who gave up, of the long lines, of disgruntled people and maybe the system does need to be fixed. That was not my experience. At one point I looked around and thought to myself: "This is what church used to look like." People of all ages, all walks of life, all together in one place, longing to be heard, telling their life story by virtue of what mattered enough to them to show up on a cold Minnesota night.

Someone finally called the question. Hope answered.