- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 12
-
Sparkle (0)
Today, Inauguration Day, I spent part of the day with my friend Kate, watching the Inauguration, in tears. I couldn't seem to stop. Every moment of the Inauguration had me weepy. There is a deep sense of spiritual shift in the nation. There is a lifting, an airing-out. There is a sense of new responsibility, new vigor and enthusiasm. This day is so profoundly about us -- about what new soulfulness we ordinary people have invested in our leaders.
I read on the web today that "...tears flowing when a real life crisis is successfully resolved stem from the repressed fear and anger that built up when the outcome was in doubt." Maybe that is true. Maybe I am crying because I just couldn't imagine it would ever, could ever, come true.
Maybe it is because of the woman who said she had awakened her children in the middle of the night when it was clear that Obama had been elected. She woke them and said,"Wake up! Wake up! Martin Luther King's dream just came true! Wake up!"
Maybe it is the sight of a six year old African American girl in a pink sweatshirt that said, "I can be president".
Maybe it was because Obama said:
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
There was a spirituality to the Inauguration. There was a sense that we were part of something bigger, that our nation had a soul, a soul that must be held accountable for its actions.
There is a newness afoot. A sparking hopefulness.
Many of you reading this were not alive in the JFK years. There was a visionary spirit then, too.
But this is even different.
Katie Couric commented with Bob Shieffer that this is even more amazing. The hope for true bipartisanship seems more possible now than ever before. Could it be? Could it be a restoration of a national spirit? Could we have the chance to be better? To heal more? To solve problems faster than we make them?
My friend and I toasted each other with champagne when Obama was inaugurated. And we said, "Welcome to a new America."
And my tears. Maybe they were because Obama said:
”For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers... We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.”
My spirit rose in joy to hear American described as we actually are. I cried to have our spiritual diversity folded into national sense of common humanity.
It is contagious. Kirstin said :
I feel like I got my country back. I am far to the left of Obama, and I know he’s not going to live up to my hopes, or my wants. But still, I feel such hope.
.
I’ve never felt about my government, the way I feel right now. I feel empowered to help make change.
.
Today, for perhaps the first time, I feel proud to be an American.
Sally, who is a citizen of England, listened to the Inaugural address and noted Obama's scriptural plea that it was now
