Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 12:06:13 PM EDT
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When carol gets it right, she knocks it out of the park. Promoted from the diaries...Thurman
Even John McCain couldn't argue - yesterday was one of those truly prescious moments in our lives. As someone born in 1965, I have to say, I've seen too few of them. I often felt like I was born into world of smashed dreams. Dreams I never had. The Boomers had JFK. We had ............. no one. Until now.
What truly struck me over and over and over yesterday was how happy everyone was. In our darkest hour. With everything at its absolute worst, we still have the capacity to envision perfection, success, and happiness. It wasn't about where we are now. It was all about where we want to be. For a few days at least we got a brief glimpse of what it will feel like when we get everyone health care, when we get our adversaries into meaningful dialogue to stop the killing, the destruction, the despair. When we can feed our families, house them and finally feel secure. It was a great feeling. Hope is a word that is often overused, but hope is no little thing to someone promised so much by their leaders - "We're turning a corner!" "Mission Accomplished!" only to repeatedly find that that light at the end of the tunnel is always a train, or that what lies around the corner is an ambush or an IED.
This week, we got a taste of what an Obama presidency would be like. A world free of fear, free of hunger, free of want and despair. And we liked it. |
| carolh :: History |
| My boyfriend Eric is one of those rare people who has a positive air of good karma around him all the time. He identifies so much with Barack. They are the same age, and it tickles Eric to think that someone his age could be President, but what amazes me about Eric is that he has that same capacity for hope. When I met Eric, I was at a bad time in my life. Everything was going wrong for me. I was ill, I was broke, I was afraid I couldn't pay the rent. And yet, Eric made me laugh. Even when we were both laid off and he had to drive a cab at night to get through. He told me that we MAKE our own future. If you want something - well PICTURE it. Just IMAGINE it. I took that advice to heart. I pictured becoming a civil engineer. I pictured having my own business so I would never have to rely on someone else for my own destiny. I pictured Eric and I opening a restaurant on the top of the Palisades Cliffs. Eric pictured finally finishing college - which he did in his 30's - with honors. We pictured so many things, and they all came true. EVERY ONE OF THEM.
That is where it all starts. An idea. A glimmer. A spark. A hope. I make my living designing things now, things that start out of absolutely thin air and become real - things I can touch, and see, and actually feel. The art of IMAGINING has become so much a part of my life - I am hooked on it now. Because I know from experience that it works. We have to start somewhere and hope is where we start. I also know one thing from bitter experience and it is that the biggest enemy of hope is FEAR. Fear stops us from hoping, from dreaming, from imagining, from acting at all.
Hope doesn't cost anything, but not having any impoverishes us. I saw so much hope yesterday and I could feel it through my TV screen all the way from Denver. The collective Karma was amazing. Lets keep that feeling going. Lets elect Barack Obama to the White House.
If we picture it, I know from experience, that we can make it happen.
See my Obama diary flashback - "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Super Tuesday":
http://www.bluejersey.com/show... |
