hope

[ewein2412]

Tim says:  "So--now I would feel good about moving to the States."

What Tim keeps likening this election to is the fall of the Berlin Wall, a thing he "never expected to see within my lifetime."  And it does feel a bit surreal, still.  I am so used to keeping my head down, and all of a sudden, for the first time in *years*, I can walk down the street waving an American flag.  Which I did, last night, on our way to the Perth city fireworks and bonfire.  (this is mark, of course):

Afterwards we had a wonderful bonfire party with our next door neighbors.  We do the bonfire in the BBQ because there's no where else to put it--been collecting sticks and last year's xmas tree and blue wrapping paper, which makes the flames go green (as Yalies of my generation will know).

 

There were drinks and nibbles in the summerhouse, and we had sparklers and rockets and the left over jack-o-lanterns lighting the path...
 

...and my lovely neighbor brought us a bottle of pink champagne with which to toast the election results.  The kids toasted red-white-and-blue star-shaped marshmallows (these are the neighbors):

  
 

I feel a bit more human this morning, having had more than 2 hours' sleep.  But I still can't quite believe that I'm not dreaming.

 

My mother died thirty years ago next week at the age of 35.  She was born in the same year as Obama's mother, and of a similar idealistic, openminded temperament (she didn't marry a black man; she married a gay man, knowingly, in 1963.  She was the daughter of a United Church of Christ minister, and her husband was Jewish.  They adopted a mixed-race baby during their three years in Jamaica).  It makes me weep, to try to imagine what she would have thought of this election.  I suppose, in her way, she fought for it, back in the '60s.  She EARNED this election.  God, I wish she could have seen it happen.
 

I can go home now. 

 

----------------------------------

estara  and everyone else, here's that link again: http://heroes.cnn.com/

Comments

I may have commented to this effect already, but

[sharonafyre.livejournal.com]

May I just take this moment to tell you that your Telemakos books have been one of my single biggest and favorite discoveries in contemporary writing in the last five or six years?

And also that I love Pete Seeger? And that Bob Dylan is literally my first musical memory?

Re: I may have commented to this effect already, but

[ewein2412]

as a Telemakos fan you are well-equipped to appreciate my secret personal inner delight that a man with an African father and a white, Western mother could become the president of the United States.

but I also just am so taken with how much his early childhood and upbringing paralleled my own--we are children of the same generation. It feels good.

and, and... just thank you.

Re: I may have commented to this effect already, but

[sharonafyre.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought of Telemakos early on.

Cool parallel you didn't even know was going to occur.

I wonder if he has read your books. They would make a nice gift for the 10 year old if she is a reader.

Re: I may have commented to this effect already, but

[ewein2412]

rumor has it she's a harry potter fan. I hadn't thot of sending the books myself but that's not a bad idea!

Re: I may have commented to this effect already, but

[sharonafyre.livejournal.com]

You totally should!!