Wednesday morning my teacher son called to say that he woke up with a sense of optimism he hasn’t experienced in a long time. For a moment I wasn’t tracking him–not enough coffee in me, I guess–but then I realized he was talking about Tuesday’s election. I happily agreed with him that it felt as if a corner had been turned. Oh yes, the economy is still in the toilet and everyone is tighening their belts and a little scared, but there’s new energy in the air, a new leader about to take the reins, and hopefully a developing of direction.
Reality has set in since Wed. thanks in part to the stock market (my husband and I had a meeting with our financial advisor yesterday, no fun), but optimism continues to ride on my shoulders and I’m determined to take that emotion as far as I can. And I’m not alone. I’m guessing everyone who reads this will agree that the economy is topic #1 (wanna see the latest email from my sister as an example?). Those conversations demonstrate that people are involved politically and economically. Instead of chatting about nonsense at the pool where I do therapy for my hips this morning, we discussed Obama’s cabinet appointments. Yeah, for a bunch of broads, we really do have brains. And we’re stimulating our brains because we truly care about what’s going on around us. Maybe what it boils down to is the feeling that the country is in this together. We know there’s no quick fix and are willing to walk the walk in order to get to the other side.
What does this have to do with writing? Maybe not much. I’ve found it hard to focus on the current book, blaming my lack of concentration in part on the no-nonsense arrival of winter weather in my part of the country, but now I’m thinking that its more a matter of reality capturing a huge chunk of my attention and not leaving much for creativity. Oh, I’ll get the words and pages done, but I’ll keep an eye on the clock because I want to catch the evening news.
How about others? Are these moments in history pulling you in?
Vonna
www.vonnaharper.com
A Week Of Change
November 7th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Yes, more than ever before.
As a person born in Mexico, I know what it is to live a moment of historic change–when for the first time in close to a century, the president elect wasn’t from the same political party.
But that election affected pretty much only Mexicans, and we knew it.
This one? The world is breathing hope right alongside you and I.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Vonna,
Change is good, although as a country we do experience heavy swings back and forth both with economy and with issues. If a person looks back in history, there were huge economic crises and political party changes in the 1800’s about four different times. So what we’re experiencing, in a sense, isn’t new. For me it was gratifying to see how as a people we can influence things. So many people become apathetic and think we can’t. It’s one of the reasons we are a great nation. We are diverse. We are powerful, we are compassionate in many ways, and we’re tough. 
We’re not perfect, but we never will be. No one nation is. 
I’m realistic…I know things don’t miraculously fix themselves overnight.
I pay attention to history, and history tells me that it repeats itself.
Denise A. Agnew
November 8th, 2008 at 8:11 am
“Hope” is what I’ve been telling people I feel now. I’ve been unhappy about the direction we’ve been going for too many years. Though nothing has changed, I’ve changed. I think Obama is the man to stop our downward slide. Not just our economics, but our ethics, too.