Well, the Big Day is finally here. Are you excited yet? Or already sick of the whole thing? It's true that there seems to be a sense of optimism and feel-goodness out there that is maybe over the top--hyped no doubt by the media, who lives and breathes for big events like this. It's all too easy to be cynical and look at the dark side. Sometimes I feel as if we've been programmed that way. Only suckers look at the good parts and believe in them, right?
My own take is this: We've been blessed with about four days now of communal celebration, beginning with, of all things, the "Miracle on the Hudson." From the moment those folks all splashed safely out of that airplane, to me it has felt like people have been freed up to say good things about ourselves. The economy may be in the tank; the world situation is scary and getting scarier; the old systems we thought we understood don't seem to be working, but by God, we still know how to do things. One of our own can still land a plane safely under extraordinary circumstances. Whether we voted for him or not, a man will become president today who, at the time our country was founded, was counted as only 3/5th human.
That's pretty remarkable. The PE may not be our guy, but the event is worth celebrating. Our friends and neighbors around the world seem genuinely happy for us (something you don't really sense unless you've been abroad recently) and want the new guy to succeed. That's a good thing too. It's nice to know that not everybody else in the world is angry, disappointed or disgusted with us.
Look, we're facing some tough times. The New Guy is not going to be either as brilliant as we might hope or as bad as we might fear. We're all going to have to face the coming music together. So if we want to celebrate a bit before getting down to business, why not?
And that's not the only remarkable thing going on today. Here's a take on the whole inauguration that I hadn't thought of, but which may really be the most astonishing thing to celebrate today. We do this on a regular basis in a way that is not often seen even in the modern world. Even in the middle of the Civil War, we held an election and people, whether they liked the winner or not, stepped up and said, okay, he's our guy now and got on with things. Cool.
We're all having such a good time that somebody has even built a Lego inauguration.
Finally, on a more serious note, some suggestions for your private devotions today.
Now for Something Completely Different
The following email came to me at work yesterday, and I promised to spread the word. If you're interested, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with the right people.
Do you know someone who would be interested in a puppy? The puppies are in Algonquin and really need a home! Pass the word around. Please let me know if you know of anyone who might be interested! Scott (my friend) rescued 6 black lab (mix?) puppies out of the middle of the road on Saturday. PLEASE help them find them homes otherwise, it's Animal Control - which means they only have 5 days. They have been bathed, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but we can't keep them. They are currently in a kennel in the basement since I don't have a fence. I've lost count of the number of rescue groups that I've contacted, only to be turned down due to no room. Please check with every dog person you know to see if they want a puppy. Obviously we want them to get to good homes and they are for free.
I know the PE is looking for a dog, but I don't think these are likely candidates. But if you know somebody . . . give me a call.
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