A Recap, If I May.

I have not yet spoken deeply on this, so here I go...

I was dwntwn, tho a part of me wished I had been in Harlem that night. Over Stella's and Blue Moons we talked about things, friends, family, and how amazing what could happen would be. As the numbers began to come in I was sceptical. CNN had one set of numbers while Fox had another. the CNN projection passes to the 270 to win. I can see it from outside where I enjoy a Camel Light. Things happen in between, but at some point I am back on my bar stool, listening to McCain give Obama props and bowing out gracefully. Which he did rather well. We clap and boo. And as Obama, comes up the room fills with silence, the times seems to drag slowly, a movie moment, where the character realizes something profound is about to happen. 

He speaks of his wife and children first, which as a women, and a slight romantic I find endearing. But more, it spoke of the things in life that are universal. Love, family, home, the ties that bind. And as he spoke of that old women in the south, and the buses, and the injustices that were faced so that he could stand on the podium, my eyes watered, my throat got tight, the air in my lungs seemed short, and the tears rolled down. Everyone was so quiet, not a sound. I looked around at the strangers, and we all felt our own sense of pride. In what we were seeing, in what Obama  was saying, and in the realization that this moment had changed our history as Americans forever. 

I felt so foolish for crying, so silly you know. Telling myself it was ridiculous, but in the quiet and the solemn surrounding me, I could not stop. I had to let it out. I thought of my family, my mother, my brother. The people that I love. 

In the days that followed I had to process, and take it all in. I had to be quiet and think about what had just happened. It was not so much that he is black, tho it is important, yes. But he is universal. He makes you remember, and dream, and hope. And for a politician to have that power, that voice, that ambition, to make millions believe again, is astonishing. I could say more. I could say everything that I'm feeling when I think of this, but I still have to process, in the quiet solemn. 

I recently saw Frederico Fellini's I Vitelloni. His classic film about a young group of men, that do not want to grow up, tho there is much more to the story. There is a scene where one of the main characters, asks a young boy if he is happy. The film is in Italian, with subtitles. When the man asks this, he word he uses in Italian is contento. The English translation is happy. I find it interesting that content and happy are used as translations for each other in the film, since there are not nearly the same thing. I'd rather be content any day. So as I bring this to a close. It was a wonderful moment, that night. A piece of history, that children will read about in books, a moment that will stay with all of us forever. Tho really, did you have any doubts? 

Fin.