Loved Aretha Franklin singing My Country 'Tis of Thee. You get to see her so rarely and she is so spectacular.
Loved Michelle's Inaugural outfit by Cuban-American fashion designer Isabel Toledo, a super-talented unsung New York City fashion designer. Michelle's green gloves finished the look with a touch of polish. The little girls wore colorful coats closed with velvet ribbons by Crewcuts from J. Crew; you can't buy that kind of endorsement.
Loved the Inaugural poem written and read by Elizabeth Arnold called Praise Song for the Day:
"Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky. A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
We need to find a place where we are safe; we walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign, the figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Others by "First do no harm," or "Take no more than you need."
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light."
Many beautiful phrases here. And what if the mightiest word is love? I think that is Barack's message of tolerance, diplomacy, unity. I feel relief, I feel hope, I feel there is someone living in the White House I know and that knows me. We celebrate a new day.
1 comment:
What a great day!
I can't wait to see what Mrs.Obama wears this evening!
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