The Audacity of Hope; The American Dream

I am hoping against hope that all these leaves will disappear.
I can dream, yes?

No, no, no, that’s not what I want to say at all.
It’s just what I automatically think of when I see so many yellow leaves in one place. So many leaves.

Without leaps of imagination,
or dreaming,
we lose the excitement of possibilities.

Dreaming, after all,
is a form of planning.

-Gloria Steinem

My continuing passion is to part a curtain,
that invisible veil of indifference
that falls between us and that blinds us

to each other’s presence,
each other’s wonder,
each other’s human plight.

-Eudora Welty

It’s all over. It’s begun.

You know, thank goodness for the Philadelphia Phillies, a sort of warm-up for victory. I am so used to being let down, by Philly sports of all kinds, by the Democratic party, by- let’s be frank- Joe Biden, that it’s good I had the chance to get used to someone winning for a change, getting something right, not choking at the last minute; otherwise I may have been overcome by the shock.

Last night something went very, very right.

Today I am reading a lot about the significance of this victory, of the historical import of electing an African-American into the highest office of the land. And I understand that for many, this is the just culmination of a fight they began long ago.

But I think this definition, this compartmentalization of the victory belittles the enormity of the event. We did not simply vote an African-American into office.

We voted for a man of hope and a man of change, and I believe that this is the truly culturally significant event. The color of his skin is wholly irrelevent.

Now what? We try to hold that sense of hope and change close in the difficult days ahead.

One thing I have learned this year, is that optimism is very, very hard. It is so much easier to find the downside to things. And yet, optimism and creative thought- the audacity of hope– are the only roads to progress.

I hope that this truly signifies a new beginning, a fresh start. Certainly, all around us we find things are being torn down, and the situation is ripe for change. I hope by change we all agree we mean actual change, and not just wanting things to get better, yet stay the same.

I hope that everyone continues to feel empowered, to feel compelled to do their part, to serve; I hope everyone continues to feel hope and responsibility and duty. All around us there is work to be done, people in need, people to be reached out to. Let us all hang on to our sense of inspiration and purpose and meaning.

We voted, we spoke as a people, we elected Barack Obama because he spoke to something deep within us, that compelled us to become a better people, a better America.

But it’s not all up to him. We elected him to lead us. But ultimately, it is still up to us. The true work is in our hands.

That’s how I see it, anyway.

Tomorrow, back to blogging as usual; back to the magic of nature and the miracles of the everyday. But today, revelling in the magic of human nature; the extraordinary nature of today.