318) Inauguration Day

January 20, 2009

Tuesday

El Milagro: Celeste the Nurse hooks me up all smiley and friendly today. She asks if I watched the inauguration on TV and I tell her about our office's crowding into an empty office to watch the celebration on a computer stream through a projector on the wall. Celeste seems to be cautiously optimistic about the whole thing, as she wonders how quickly we'll see any change. I muse that we are still experiencing cuts in the programs I work with (we lost three Transitional Living Programs since September) so I imagine that it'll take several years to turn this ship around. Celeste replies that she hopes he does something quickly about the economy, as she conducts my nursing eval and finishes setting up the machine. I mention that I am confused about my weight today... 80.1 kgs. She looks back at the chart and agrees that that is pretty high for me and we discuss how that could happen and are left with more questions than answers. She calculates that we should try to take 4 off, even tho that is over my Rosie Limit of 3. I tell her, "Let's go for it!".

Even though I watched the streaming video of the actual inauguration on computer at work, and had NPR's coverage on my office radio all day, I am still curious and interested to hear more, so I set up my earphones and turn on All Things Considered to hear their take on this historic day.

"We have chosen hope over fear."

This is truly a historic day. In my life I count the days that were so monumentous that they are like bookmarks of living history that I'll always remember in detail. Unfortunately, many of these markers are like headstones that flag assasinations we'll never forget: Kennedy, King, and Lennon. The bookmarks in my mind of the more extraordinarily memorable days of historic proportion must include the day Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, taking the helm of the Mamamia in the BVI's, New Year's Eve 2000, my wedding day with Lizzie, and the inauguration of the first black American President! I am touched by all the interviews I see and hear with folks who remark that just 60 years ago blacks were legislated as less than equal citizens. I am proud to live in a country that is moving past those times with a speed that seems to be increasing in velocity every year we evolve into the future. This is a truly historic day!

I listen to NPR's ATC, and then catch Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous report their views, and then on to Jim Lehrer with Mark Shields and David Brooks analyze the speech. Some say it wasn't his best; some say it was dour... and I am left with a need to see it again and pay close attention, cause I musta missed something the first time. Fortunately, I find it on MSNBC in it's entirety and watch closely this time. Here is what I think: the speech is realistic given the state of the union. It calls us to take personal responsibility for being part of the solution, with which I agree. It has some metaphorical allusions, which I always like. It is short and sweet; realistic and pulling no punches; scolding of the past administration (which is honest and needed); and yet it has a message of hope and a challenge to us all. To me, basically a good speech.

I finally am satiated with inaugural festivities, so I surf for a movie and on AMC find an ironic choice (their's not mine)... Guess Who is Coming to Dinner with Spencer Tracey and Sidney Poitier. What a choice for today... reflecting the inauguration of the product of a biracial marriage... there is this place in the movie where Tracey and Poitier are discussing whether the world will accept biracial marriages and Poitier laments that a product of this marriage cannot be president; but Secretary of State would be good enough. That was 1967... and today, only 32 years later, we actually have a black president! WOW!

And so it goes on inauguration day in dialyland.

Notes: In at 80.1 and out at 76.7.