Can't think of a more mindblowing day in my lifetime...now granted seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan just 4 short months after being home sick and watching JFK shot on TV, was quite a relief from what I was feeling as a 7 year old who dreamed nightly of missiles coming down on us (oh those duck-and-cover drills scared the shit out of me) and The Fab Four opened a world of youth and hope and fun before me even at that young, impressionable age.
I had learned how to read off of Presidential flashcards. My parents, even then die-hard Republicans had taken me to a Goldwater rally, but Kennedy was MY first President. I was too young to know or care about Ike.
And the Beatles and Dylan and the counter-culture, the youth culture of the Civil Rights years, the anti-war movement, the music that was our soundtrack kept me intersted and hopeful and pissed off through that time as an inquisitive young pre-teen and teenager. The slogans of the time though simple and sometimes naive, still resonante with me and my generation in different byut vibrant ways--somehow "All You Need Is Love" set the stages for my investigations into Buddhism and Eastern thought..."War Is Over, If You Want It" has always been a beacon of hope in what seems to have been some sort of ongoing war somewhere in the world for as long as I can recall...
And though the disillusionment of the deaths of MLK and RFK and the riots in Chicago took the wind out of the sails of the idealism of the 60s, the sheer force of will that a people's consciences could help to stop the Vietnam War and could help to bring down the illicit wrongdoing behind Nixon's presidency gave me faith once again...faith that found glimmers in a peanut farmer who was culturally our style but who couldn't muster up what it took for the fight he needed to fight, thru the facade of Reaganism, the clandestine meanderings of GHWB, the hope and charisma of the Clinton years gone down in a hail of hypocritical attacks that forced the public's eye away from real issues into foaming holier-than-thou soapboxing, to the Prodigal Son's comeplte and utter ineptitude in the name of God and Daddy...
Remember that the moon landing was a beautiful, boundary shattering moment that came on the heels of the violence of 1968 and which for a brief moment showed us a look back at Earth in all of it's fragile beauty and made us feel the hand of creation and its hope and the miracle of our existence.
"...Picture a bright blue ball, just spinnin', spinnin' free / it's dizzying, the possibilities..." of course, the next line to that Grateful Dead song is "ashes, ashes, all fall down.*" And there have been many dark hours since the astronauts looked back and saw us staring up at their other worldly achievement.
Well, hold today's moment of hope close and cherish it and let's see if the magnificent, perspective shattering moment that today signifies can hold its water. My prayers are with President Obama (sounds damn good, doesn't it). I pray you will have more strength than you will ever need, more wisdom than you'll have time to use, and more open-minded, human compassion, insight and love than any mortal man before you. You just may need it. Here's to a brave, and diligent and dedicated man. Be your best and push beyond it. Ball is in your hands and there is a full court press on. Make your shot count, sir.
*Lyrics from "Throwing Stones" by John Barlow (c) Ice Nine Publishing