Tears of hope

I just watched this video again:



I can understand the cynics who say that this particular piece of art advanced a candidate with shiny, happy, musical, media magic; giving him an unfair youtube-licous advantage for free. It must be especially galling to Obama's opposition that the final result is inspirationally hard to resist and was created by people not officially associated with the campaign, and not asked or paid to produce the piece. I understand and agree that this can be construed as marketing genius. But as I watched (for what is probably the 50th or 60th time) tears streamed down my smiling face.

Because - well, frankly I am a sucker for inspirational marketing- but more than that...
we want change.
We Want Change.
WE WANT CHANGE!

I read once that most children want to vote with whatever candidate or party is in power. When I was younger that translated to most school age children (myself included) wishing we could vote (or get our parents to vote for) for Reagan. The reason offered in the article was that most kids (at least of my nationality, race, and socio-economic status) basically feel safe, that the world and leaders are protecting them and are somehow contributing to the general, comfort-creating conditions. That was definitely true for me as a child. Not that I credited the republican party for how safe I was, but my general sense at election time of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. " My parents were kind enough at the time not to spend a lot of energy trying to explain the tax cuts for the rich, the ballooning national deficit, the thousands of people dying by the cruelty of foreign regimes and an un-named AIDS virus, that Ollie North was probably not our greatest American hero, the upsetting dark-side of trickle-down economics, the culture wars set in motion when a "conservative movement" declared war on unwed moms and providers offering the option of abortion, and encouraging God to be positioned as a running mate and political strategist for future generations, etc...

So now I'm older and I've learned to mistrust politicians and practically despise the leaders of conservative politics who seem to want nothing to change (like the 8th grader in me.) But here's this guy, this Obama guy, and here's this entire generation of kids who are pushing for change. And Yeah, I want change. I want a break from all the really rich folks getting elected and taking a break from the big oil BOD jobs to run the country for 8 years. I want to trust that some people in power are NOT going to use that role to pit average citizens against one another a la, "if you're not with us, you're against us" GWB. Mostly I want someone who will give a complex, nuanced answer to a difficult question, and not pretend that sound bites and slogans are policies. It's been a long time since my views were in line with a "majority" of Americans, but this video and the fact that it has received over 8 million hits makes me feel hopeful:

We've been told we can not do this by a chorus of cynics- they will only grow louder and more dissonant. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope... but in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about HOPE...

i'm lovin' it.

Yes we can...

This is old news now... I've seen it on several blogs and heard it referenced on the local news, but today after I watched it for the 3rd time (it was the first time that I watched it with not a crying baby on my shoulder, but a sweet, sleeping baby on my shoulder) I decided I wanted to post it here too.




There is some criticism of artists and "famous" people playing a role in politics as if they aren't also citizens. But in my mind, this type of art is why being a free people matters.
It looks like it was fun to make.
It feels good to let your guard down and experience music and words and a spirit of collaboration.
It feels good to be inspired.

If you have the opportunity to watch this video while your sleeping 4 month old snores a congested, peaceful, rhythmic bass line innocently into your ear, I highly recommend you do so... but keep a tissue handy

sweet poetry...

ECCE HOMO

Every thing that is

our strength

is also our weakness

everything carries within itself

the stigma of its opposite sign

like a number tattooed on a prisoner's arm

like a letter sewn onto a deportee's coat

there's no escaping it

even if we were to walk at a certain pace

head held high

number and letter warn:

here is a victim of those clothed in wolves' skins

here branded by history

ecce homo

---Ryszard Kapuscinski

(translated from the Polish by Diana Kuprel and Marek Kusiba)

originally published in The New Yorker

More poems

It probably surprises most of my friends that I go to church these days. For a long long time I've been against organized religion because of what I saw of it in the media. In October we started going to the Unitarian Universalist Church of West Hartford, and my ideas about church changed for the better. If you're ever interested in some uplifting and inspiring sermons you should read a few of Rev. Jan's.

Today the service included this poem by Mary Oliver...

The Terns

The birds shrug off
the slant air,
they plunge into the sea
and vanish
under the glassy edges
of the water,
and then come back,
as white as snow,
shaking themselves,
shaking the little silver fish,
crying out
in their own language,
voices like rough bells –
it’s wonderful
and it happens whenever
the tide starts its gushing
journey back, every morning
or afternoon.
This is a poem
about death,
about the heart blanching
in its folds of shadows because it knows
someday it will be
the fish and the wave
and no longer itself –
it will be those white wings,
flying in and out
of the darkness
but not knowing it –
this is a poem about loving
the world and everything in it:
the self, the perpetual muscle,
the passage in and out, the bristling
swing of the sea.

Reading about buddhism...

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing,
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its lovelieness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower,
and retell it in words and in touch,
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing

-Galway Kinnel