Time redeemed.

I was not alone, think it was the first time
Watching you rise splendid & graceful
I cheered as you sailed, a greatness unknown
I laughed as I waved and imagined you saw me
In the streets of the city, the windows of buildings
A million faces gazing upwards in wonder

A million faces together and cheering and smiling
You were the warmth of their hearts, you were the sum of their dreams
In the coldness of morning you brought warmth to their eyes

Giving this feeling of wonder I could not imagine
You unlocking these thoughts no book and no picture could ever convey
This feeling and morning had opened a door
I stepped into a new world
I watched you fly

Saw you as a friend, the spirit of dreams
Imagined a new world, lands far away
And imagined those faces as you hung in their sky

I'm leaving ground, stepping into a new world

Oh, what a day. I've cried less at funerals. I stayed up til 3, then got up at 7. Fortunately no one stole our newspaper, and I promptly started sobbing in the car when I saw Tony Auth's cartoon, then started sobbing again--but laughing at the same time--at lunch when I heard further extracts of Rep. John Lewis' remarks last night, in which he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and read in The Inquirer some extract of one of King's speeches, about how he might not see us reach the promised land, but that we would get there some day. I'm tearing up again as I type about it. I nearly started crying in the car before I went to the post office listening to NPR again. I mean, I can remember having special Meetings for worship for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Moorestown Friends when I was in elementary school--and since it was an all-school meeting, one of the few we had, us little people got to sit up on the second floor, which was exciting--but there's such a difference between thinking that this country promised equality of opportunity, and that a black person could become President or whatever, and knowing even when I was what, eight? that no one who wasn't white had ever been President, and the knowledge I had before yesterday that Barack Obama would win, and waking up today and walking out around and being able to hold my own head higher, because we proved that it isn't just empty rhetoric and pretty words. It would be moronic of course to say that racism or entrenched systemic inequalities have magically evaporated. No. But validating the foundational premise of our Republic--which even the Founders themselves didn't have the wherewithal to live up to--validates all of us. Slavery is America's original sin, the fault within ourselves that nearly destroyed us multiple times. And it's not as if that huge a crime, down through the centuries, can ever really be "set right." But we can make atonement, and we can move on, and turn the page. And I do believe that today, in some sense, we have. I feel like Schmendrick in The Last Unicorn--I did not know my heart was so empty, to feel so full.

Michael Crichton is dead. I never liked his books, and it strikes me that one less bestselling global warming denier can only be good for the planet. Also, Proposition 8 passed in California, which is both a gross crime against human rights and a timely reminder that we haven't stepped into a liberal paradise just yet. Hopefully it will be overturned or repealed soon. And in other news, those crazy people up in Seward's Folly may actually have re-elected a convicted felon to the Senate, which is a stain upon the honor of that body if ever there was one.

Speaking of things literary, I have to wonder if this is the answer to Langston Hughes' question "What happens to a dream deferred?" Rather than exploding, it...becomes reality.