Sunday I was getting a massage at a place just up the street from us in SriRacha.  Afterwards, I was having a conversation of the husband of the family that runs the place.  He speaks very good English (much better than my Thai) and was translating a bit for his wife also.  His wife asked me if I traveled to the U.S. to vote.  (Background:  Thais have to travel to their home province to vote in any election.  They do not typically "register" to vote where they live, but instead travel home to vote.)  I told them I had the option of voting through the mail.

Then Wilson (the husband) asked about Barack Obama.  He seemed excited to share his interest in U.S. politics with me.  What struck me about this wasn't so much that he cared who won the election, but that he cared at all.  In my own little world, I have a hard time imagining how the president of the U.S. has much impact on a small business in the middle of Thailand.  Yet somehow this family was very interested in the results.  In some ways, this was quite humbling.  How many Americans follow politics in any country other than our own?  (To be fair, how many citizens of country X follow politics in any country not their own?)  Yet America still holds sway as a "superpower" and provides a sense of "hope and prosperity" to many people around the world.  As I said, it was quite humbling.