Mary....

"And yet, somehow, two political junkies had been seated beside one another."

I met Mary while attending a family wedding in Colorado this past summer. It was one of those events where they have name plates and mix everyone around so you are not sitting next to someone you know. My seat was next to Mary who was a cousin to the groom.

Mary was a hoot! A little older than me, she was fun with a biting, dry sense of humor as we talked about one thing or another ... and then we stumbled on politics. Neither of us had met before; neither knew the background of the other.

And yet, somehow, two political junkies had been seated beside one another.

I cannot remember how the subject came about but she was a "D" and I was an "R" ... and we laughed about that. She had worked for her Congressman there in Colorado; I told her I was deeply involved in the grassroots end of politics.

I asked if she knew my Congressman, Bob Goodlatte, but she wasn't familiar with him ... and then I said, "George Allen was my senator."

That was it! She knew all about George Allen. That started talk about the polarization of politics, and I told her I blogged ... she had heard of blogging but wasn't into it herself. She is still an active member of the local democrats.

The conversation dwindled away when the band began playing and the dancing began and the wine flowed under a full moon on a warm Colorado summer night ... but it had been fun to meet someone from the "other side" ... and I marveled at the coincidence of two people -- probably the only two out of that group of 200 -- who were that deeply involved in politics ... and how we just happened to be seated beside one another for a brief moment in time....