America Lives

(after midnight, after Inauguration)

I went again to hear Aretha from that link (previous post).

Never have so many different threads that matter been woven together into one moment for me.

We are all here so briefly. Like a butterfly -- a moment in the sun, when our wings are still bright and agile -- we have only the here and now, and we will all pass away, and everything that we have known will pass and be no more.

This great nation, here in the storm of this moment, with the struggle to find our lives and live together....

Here today, we had one of our finest hours.

And to see the greatness that America is, and why it is the shining beacon on the hill, the last best hope, the nation that all peoples in the world look to with hope....to see why America is so great, you need only look at how we brought one of our truly liberated human beings, Aretha, onto the stage of one of our most amazing moments.

A moment when the hatreds of the world were defeated.

A moment when the Love that is in our spirits ruled our lives.

Aretha