Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Momenteosity

My legs and back are sore from volunteering, Martin Luther King Jr's holiday unleashed Lord Running Boy from his co-op school, and I just finished an overdue email for work. I am watching TV crowds at 3:30 AM Eastern Standard Time still celebrating on the National Mall in the District of Columbia.

The White House is lit up in background view. A contractor who works for my wife, a veterinarian with a PhD, is somewhere in the camera's vicinity; her husband volunteered for Obama without pay for the last year in Ohio. Their inaguration attendance plan was to go without invitation, car, or hotel. From the looks of it, they're not alone.

The world's turned upside down and all bets are off. Take heed, ye cynics, and believers, too: this is our gut-check, time to listen to better angels flapping about our possibilities and natures. It is urgently in our interests to believe, to be doers of the Word, not hearers only.

You've got to believe. To reap the extraordinary bounty of this moment, you've got to believe. It's never happened before. Ever. Faith of a mustard seed, you've got to believe.

16 comments:

Vincent said...

...or perhaps "momentousness"?

Don't tell me to believe anything. I think we can reap some extraordinary bounty without that. I shall be listening live to the Inauguration Speech with my critical faculties on full alert, as usual.

It doesn't stop this household from being excited, though, as you clearly are! And I pray that the better angels aren't corrupted in midflight, this time.

Anonymous said...

I got this feeling that today marks the end of the Reaganomics era which lasted since 1980. O man has to seize this opportunity to turn America into the greatness it once was. Before Reagan it was the New Deal. Now, this new generation, all of us included, have to make it happen. This remake of America is finally being led by someone with some brain power. No "C" student who crapped us out for 8 years. Good post, you got me going. I have been hearing from friends who had tickets and went to DC only to find you had to be inside the District at midnight to use them. Bummer. Wait all night in the cold. They ended up watching everything on their hotel TV.

Anonymous said...

Today Wall Street took a dive, and the banks were smarting pretty badly. Why? I think because during his inauguration speech, Obama put them all on notice. It was a wonderful thing to behold.

MarcLord said...

Vincent,

hello again! phew, what a day, mere "momentousness" doesn't cover it.

I had a carefully thunk-up reply for you, but the computer crashed right before posting. Gist was this: the atmosphere has already changed here in terms of collective belief. Trouble is, we are in very deep doo-doo. Osama bin Laden and the intellects of vigorous Islam correctly diagnosed and exploited the West's bankrupt basis, its lack of a moral or philosophical imperative.

Obama sees it as well as they do, seeking by word and deed to close the gap. Deeds require belief. So while you don't have to believe anything, my fellow citizens need to. There may be few wiser and more studious stewards of funds than Obama, but America is shortly going to ask the world to buy $2 trillion more in bonds. It all stops unless the central bankers and investors believe.

MarcLord said...

Z& Me,

come to think of it those celebrants were looking a little cold last night. (Inside the District by midnight? By policy or practicality? The grand mal of suck.)

Experts argue that nations can't turn on a dime, that a leader's aperture is inherently narrow. Usually they're right, at the cost of being wrong on the important stuff. Nations can change with extreme rapidity, and I hope ours is doing so.

There aren't many American leaders who can get more than a million of us to show up and volunteer for anything. If nothing else, we will have competence and wisdom, not ignorance and dark purpose.

MarcLord said...

Bee,

there really is a Culture of Greed on Wall St. that periodically flourishes like runaway yeast. I was there for one spate of it, and yes, they are bummed right now. The words "transparency, responsibility, accountability, regulation" all make them shrivel.

isabelita said...

"Periodically"?!!! Geeze, that's Wall Street's raison d'etre! And it's high time that ends.
There are too many people in the world, making too many demands on resources, and the whole damned planet needs to start being less greedy or it's doomed.
You are optimistic because of faith. I am not.

Anonymous said...

Spend time with your progeny and teach them the truth, under all is the Golden Rule: Do unto Others, as You would have them do Unto You...Let it be your household rule and your life rule....

Anonymous said...

I am ashamed to admit I was 3 years old when my father took me to the Jewish Temple in my town where Malcolm X spoke; he appealed for money for his cause, and Noone answered; My father put a penny in my hand and I said:"I have a penny," I lost the cause for many yearw=s, this was at the Jewish Synagogue in Gloversille, NY; Everyone lost the cause for many years, but I am proud that a Child's Heart felt the moment and recognized impotance before the time.

Anonymous said...

Spotter guards the door!

Anonymous said...

Je suis Maman...

Anonymous said...

Thank you, finally; I am not stupid but advanced, and cautious...I do not fear aliens but my fellow man, who fear the Golden Rule. Then my heart will be at rest,,,

Anonymous said...

Marc, I agree with you - it feels like a change in the weather, a once-in-a-lifetime mistral wind. There's enough of a consensus of belief that we've unfurled all the sails. We're all standing on the deck watching the freshet play with the telltales, hoping to momentarily see the sails billow.

MarcLord said...

Iz,

You're right, the greed is always there, bought fair and square for a trunk of beads. That trunk was honest money at the time, a fortune.

The rules of greed let you grab whatever they let you get away with. If the rules get relaxed, your greed was bottled up, waiting to get let out. So managing markets is tricky, like staying one step ahead of the imagination.

MarcLord said...

Phil,

oh how we want to see the freshets make our sails billow and take. Sailors used to call the wind by whistling and scratching backstays, and I will admit to the same superstitions. You never really know until it changes and blows, but after a while if your life depends on it you get better than the weather guys.

MarcLord said...

Anonymous,

and I am very proud of that father who gave a penny, knowing it wasn't much, but aware of its far greater symbolism.