1/3/09

I intended tonight to blog about the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's OrchKids project, which I heard about today on the radio.

However, I just read Israeli ground forces entered Gaza approximately one hour ago, and that will take presidence, as the events of these past weeks of conflict have been heavy on my heart and mind.

I have held off posting because I didn't feel I had anything of real merit to say. And I think I still don't. It is a struggle about which I feel completely confused, unknowledgable, and heartsick. Every time I try to get a history lesson or secure a broader perspective so as to better understand the situation, I only end up more aware of how much I strain to make sense of the bloodshed.

We have been watching the HBO John Adams miniseries this week (thank you Nikki), and it has led me to thinking about our revolutionary past, the conflicts we have endured, and the meaning we have made of our battles over time. There is great honor and bravery in defending what one believes to be right... to preserve a sense of meaning, or freedom, or religious connection so our values may align with our living.

Yet, with so many different ways to interpret the world, our purposes, the way in which we feel we are destined or called to interact with one another—it is difficult to discern how best to settle disputes that strike at the very core of our principles and call into question our most fundemental of beliefs.

I often worry the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will escalate into a more worldwide dispute... that Russia and Iran will more conspicuously join in the fray... that our nation will be pulled toward action and forced to take sides or will suffer the consequences of earlier (and ongoing) military decisions that seemed to have been based more on money than honor.

Whatever may come, I pray for a resolution for the peoples of Israel and Palestine. I pray for a spirit of compromise and compassion that may reach across history and find some form of peace so that the many lives caught in the crossfire of this ongoing battle may be spared and both nations may find a mutual strength and understanding that is coexistent and free from violence.

The Next Day

So history was made last night. Andy and I went to be excited, stunned, hopeful, grateful, and relieved. We were moved to tears several times, and even in listening to coverage this morning as I was getting ready for school, so many personal stories and people's thoughts on the election called up those same emotions. For me, I think they are tears of joy primarily... and perhaps the release of 8 years of waiting for a president for whom I could feel pride and admiration.

One thing that hits you in studying presidential history is how character and integrity seems to truly differentiate the good presidencies from the bad. Having admired Teddy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lincoln, Adams, Washington, and Kennedy for their ability to inspire, energize, comfort, exhort, and change the course of history, the ability to call Barack Obama the president-elect renews my hope that such leadership and vision is again possible.

I have heard from so many friends how they feel proud of this country again, and I know what they mean. Although it does not heal the deep divisions based on a history wherein democracy was not truly diverse nor representative of the variegated face of our nation, it's a step toward cultural and social evolution... bringing us a little bit closer to fulfilling the dreams and ideals upon which this country was based and which I think we all hold within our hearts as something worthy of pride and a great commitment.

We can became we did, and we did can become we will as history rolls forward and we are offered the challenge of taking a collective leap forward to write a new and courageous narrative for our nation, ourselves, and the generations to come.