A Phoenix Rising... From the Ashes

My wife and I talked over lunch about the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony and its effects on us personally and on societies local and global.  What she said struck me so powerfully that I had to quote her:

"This is the opposite--this is the antithesis--of 9/11.  What I mean is that what I felt that morning, the thought that history was changing, that American history would be marked pre-9/11 and post-9/11; and that the way the world and all Americans see this country would shift in some amazing--and even scary--ways.  This day is the opposite of that, in a way.  It's...like a phoenix rising from the ashes."

I formally invite DJ Jay Smooth to expound on the thought (and no, I don't agree with each of his points, but the overwhelming theme is on target):

Why I'm Happy, Why I'm Not Satisfied

We have permission to be happy while maintaining our practical perspective.  America has signed a treaty with her children, a promise to learn from the cornucopia of our past blunders by walking in Dr. Martin Luther King's--and, for that matter, my mother's--dream to live as humanly and as humanely as we REALLY can in our country's grand area.  Our problems are far from over in many ways, but we--America--are walking our talk again.

Let freedom ring.  Keep walking your talk.  Love somebody just because God loves him or her as much as He loves you.  Talk about tough topics with people--instead of setting people up to look like racists because they don't understand your perspective or your culture.  Open your mind enough to see another human's perspective, and you might change your mind about a few things.  The work IS a part of the dream, believe it or not...

God bless you.  Vaya con Dios.  Salaam 'Alaykum (السلام عليكم).

If I have misspelled or misused the beautiful words of your parent language, forgive me and correct me.  It's my pleasure to learn.  That, as it turns out, is another part of THE DREAM.

A Do-good Moment, A Lifetime Effect

I wrote a letter to the President when I was a little man-in-training--a letter that never left home. That undelivered letter called for peace, for cheaper gas prices--because the grown folks complained constantly about gas prices--and for better funding to schools and libraries. Why didn't I send that letter? I thought that no one in Washington, DC, would care about a little boy's thoughts.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and Li'l New Boy is A New Man. The funny thing is that I could write that very letter today just as easily--and with the same relevance. I wonder if that letter could have been a catalyst for a shift in the way politicians do business with tax receipts and federal budgets. Small gestures can create huge change not unlike pebbles cast in ponds, slicing ripples in the current, dicing movement through stillness. Mahatma Gandhi once said that we "must be the change [we] want to see in the world." Good advice, I believe.

Know what's great about doing something good? The ripple effect can affect much more than hope inspired. A little lady refused to give up her seat on a bus once, and the ripple effect of that single action--the unplanned side effect--is that young men and women of every background have a legitimate and lawful claim for equal rights and protection of those rights in a litany of unrelated yet equally important causes and concerns.

Little things still mean something special.

So...what's good? Think on it, and try what comes to heart. It just might make your day go a little better.