…but i stayed up until the wee hours watching a live stream of obama’s inauguration.
then, I was going to add another thailand post tonight…but, well, i stayed up until the wee hours last night watching a live stream of the inauguration. i’ve been friggin exhausted all day!
i found a streaming feed of the inaugural ceremonies around midnight, korea time, last night. so i started watching. i was exhausted when i started, and i was afraid i would either fall asleep before the main event, or end up staying up all night and thus sleeping through my alarm clock the next morning.
my brain empoyed some checks and balances of its own, and i got my priorities in order. did i really need to listen to a choir sing while news anchors repetitively remarked on the multicultural, multiracial ”sea of humanity” before them? did i need to be kept up to speed on things such as when obama was to get in the car, when bush was to take his last trip to the presidentail toilet, and the questioning of whether michelle obama’s dress matched the carpet in one of the white house rooms?
no. so i went to sleep.
i had recruited stephen to call my cell phone as the actual swearings-in started. and he did. i woke up, watched biden and obama become official, listened to the address, fed several of my asinine observations into twitter, and went to sleep.
i really, honestly, genuinely fell asleep with a smile on my face. this is all just so important. he’s the first black president. i completely see and appreciate the significance of this, but i don’t know how to say what’s on my mind. really, i feel like i as a white person need to leave that side of the rightfully felt glory to the people who deserve it. the people whose family histories are riddled with stories of slave ancestors and being denied service for their skin color. i can empathize with those things, but i certainly can’t sympathize with the historical plight of the african american population. so on to what i feel like i do have the qualifications to speak about…he didn’t get elected for his skin color alone. he didn’t get elected for being hip. he was elected because he respresented the people’s desire for a paradigm shift in politics. america is obviously tired of feeling disenfranchised from their political system. we’ve grown weary of inaccessible politicians. we’ve yet to see what obama can actually do, but even if he turns out to be a dud, i think this all signifies the beginning of an evolution into something that could be incredible. i just hope people remain half as mentally and emotionally invested in politics as they were tonight.
so no thailand post tonight. i can barely type a coherent sentence at this moment. i have a lot of free time tomorrow, so i’m at least going to scratch the posts down on paper. i’m leaving for beijing (!!!!!) on saturday, so i want to get it all out before another trip clouds up my memories.
i hope everyone had a happy obama day.
