Sunday, January 4, 2009

OH!bama

I wasn't sure if I was going to post this, but might as well:

It is different right now, to be sure.
For the past 2 presidents in particular, regardless of whether or not you consider yourself on the left or right, it has been a lifestyle of endurance through countless painful controversies. There has been a constant level of waves of unending stress, like the soundtrack of our lives has been bombarded with bright lights and loud obnoxious music to break our collectivce wills. I will refrain from listing them here. Politics is not what this blog is about.

Since the election, though, there is a sense of something we are not accustomed; there is a feeling of euphoria and the frenzied Obamamania that has gripped the country. While we are all pinching ourselves to see if this is for real, while we walk around with a renewed lightness of being, and while the opponents of anything that might look like a Good Opportunity lay in wait, I can't help but have this unpleasant and unpinpointable feeling like we are . . . oh! I don't know, going to lose it. Something (I'm sure Jung or Freud would have an explanation) is not letting me feel on the inside how I see others feel outwardly. It is not that I don't share in the moment the joy and excitement that is all around -- I do -- but there is something cautious inside saying that I shouldn't get too attached to the situation -- that at any moment, something is going to snatch it away. And we all want it so bad that I think people are very vulnerable to the disappointment of reality.
I've told my daughter to soak up the events, take it all in and understand that we are living through amazingly historical times and the fact is that we know it now. This is VERY COOL!
We know that we will be able to say to our kids and grandkids we were there while it happened.
I only hope that some unknown thing doesn't take it all away.
I am usually an optimist to a fault. I just don't know where my inner optimism is at the moment. It is not that I feel guilty or unworthy of enjoyment, I just feel overly cautious.

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