When I give a talk at a small museum, I call the place a place of love. Not love in the pop culture sense, but love in the sense of respect and dignity found in communities where good will lives.
What will it be like to live in a world where grievances can be heard, where, we as a culture, can co-operate and consider how to proceed and what is best for the greater good?
As I write on my web site, which I will now have to, gratefully, update,
"Perhaps our situation may be seen as a reaction after the overly bold rise of authoritarian philosophies allowing unfettered domination. These philosophies of domination have been held as real and valid for living in what quantum theorists, mystics and indigenous people have held to be inescapable, with inescapable responsibilities to an interconnected existence. What we do, really does MATTER, that is, action and language create matter." http://www.livedlearning.net/basicphilo.htm
We have for so long lived under corrupt men, men who first of all see dominance and violence as valid tools. This is not a plea for indictments, this is a plea and celebratory thank you for enlightenment especially of the male archetype, especially the U.S.
That we have a new king is not easy for me to say. But I believe we have a facilitator-king; a king whose depth of thought and sensitivity I believe can help facilitate change us all, men and women. While patriarchy and unjust hierarchies are still with us, I believe we have experienced HOPE that change is possible, that we as individuals can also be kings and queens of our domain.
Thank you Obama Family, staff and supporters, for your brilliance in making this happen. A man of color is here to clean up enormous messes. Maybe not clean up but wake us up would be a better way to put what I sense. We have a new government that may help us all learn how to work together, help us to work together for change, to clean up the messes together. I weep at the thought.
I believe these last eight years have been deeply damaging not only to our world's body, but her psyche. Our recovery will probably not come easy and will require much more cleaning up of messes than we can even imagine.
Thank you, Elizabeth Alexander for your poem, for helping me remember this time in a way that words along cannot:
"...Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,
praise song for walking forward in that light.
---Elizabeth Alexander, http://www.elizabethalexander.net/index.html
Here is to a new book of poems soon that will include the inaugural poem. I agree, language matters.
BTW: Congress passed yesterday:
The Lilly Ledbetter Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act
Go here: http://www.nnedv.org/policy/issues/economic-justice.html to begin to see just how serious the Obama Administration and Congress are about justice for all.
We may have a new king (and queen) but they seem to be the kind that can help us each become our own queen or king. Wishing us all the best at this time of hope.
