Song Lyric of the Day:
Land where my fathers died / Land of the pilgrim’s pride / From every mountainside / Let freedom ring
Aretha Franklin / “My Country ‘Tis of Thee“
I love that my nephews Elliott (4 months old) and Stephen (coming soon) will take today for granted. To them, President Barack Obama won’t be a big deal. To them, he won’t be our country’s first African-American/black/mixed-race president, he’ll just be our president. And I love that they will get to experience what we all experienced today with wide-open, unjaded eyes. I look forward to telling them how I and all my coworkers had our TVs tuned to the swearing-in, how people cheered out loud, and how some even cried. I can’t wait to describe to them how it felt to see people around the world celebrating with us. I’ll tell them how amazing it was to see more than a million and a half people on the National Mall, all there looking to catch even the briefest glimpse of the new president. And then I’ll explain to them both why it was all such a big deal.
I thought about that exact same thing yesterday! I remember when I was growing up, I didn’t care who the President was. Weston most likely won’t have an appreciation until he’s much, much older. Luckily, we both witnessed history and will be able to tell all the kids stories about the monumental President.
Funny. My kids are ten, almost eleven and they were SO aware of the significance of all of it. They told me again and again that this was a first.
I was a HUGE fan of Ronald Regan as a child. For real, don’t tell anyone, but when I was in 4th grade I campaigned, door-to-door for him.
Good times. Good. Times.
Jessica — It’ll be fun telling the boys about where we were and what we were doing on such a historic day.
Stephanie — That’s awesome that your kids appreciate the significance of this inauguration.
And pssst — everyone liked Reagan. Whether they’ll admit it or not.