Tuesday, January 20, 2009

What a day.


It’s hard to articulate how we’re feeling right now because, well, a blog isn’t the most personal venue. Maybe we can cozy up to the bar this weekend and gush about the euphoria of today’s inauguration. In the meantime, I can’t stop thinking about Roots. Not sure if you've seen this classic, but I can tell you that growing up in rural Ohio, it had a huge impact on me. At this stage in my life, the details are a bit fuzzy. But I do remember feeling, night after night, an overwhelming sense of sadness at the savagery that was unleashed on Kunta Kinte and his kin. Looking back, it was probably my first taste of evil…and I didn’t like it one bit. Which brings us to today, where I quite literally couldn’t watch a minute of the inauguration without tearing up. Mostly they were tears of joy, for Obama and his family and our country. But in some odd way, they were also tears of redemption, born out of a euphoric feeling that, thirty years later, my heroes from Roots had finally prevailed.

2 comments:

Mamacita said...

Beautiful words! Do you remember when we watched Roots? We had been snowed in all week without any school, and every night you, Vic, and I sat cuddled up under blankets watching Roots. The house
was freezing and the ice was on the inside of the windows. We tried not to shiver, but we were more absorbed with the story and so moved by what was going on in Roots that the cold was not important.

Mutt said...

ma, yer embarrassing me...aww, yeah i remember that winter storm. brutal. i also remember you taking me to Rocky Horror Picture show...my first drink, at age 8.