walking papers

Whether its results left you weeping and gnashing your teeth or   weeping with happiness, the 2008 presidential election is finally over. (Can I get an amen?) Regardless of how you feel, remember it’s always more constructive to pray for our elected leaders than to disparage their followers.

It’s also a good idea to continue sharing your concerns and ideas with those leaders. Conventional wisdom says to write your congressman, but since March 1, teacher B.J. Hill has offered another alternative.

Beginning in San Francisco, Hill has spent the last eight months walking across the country and inviting the people he meets along the way to write messages to the next president. His blog records the journey and often includes an especially moving or clever “MoTD”—message of the day—from the notebooks full of handwritten notes.

“People have written pleas for all sorts of causes, and they’ve written cheerful messages like ‘Don’t forget to cuddle with your wife,’” Hill says. “I’d like to think the next President will keep my notebooks on his nightstand. At the end of a long day, he might pick them up and hear from all the people that I’ve met. Then he might set the books down, and feel inspired to make a difference.”

Hill plans to continue walking until reaching Boston on December 1. He’s in North Carolina now, so southern drivers (you know who you are), try not to hit the boy.