inauguration

It turns out it doesn’t hurt that much. To lie on the frozen ground at 5 am, on top of a blanket from Afghanistan on top of a cardboard box. Other people formed what looked like an old fashioned cuddle puddle, except with more clothing, no drugs, and no movement. By 3:00 am I was hearing voices walking by on Columbia Rd. When we got on the train at 4:15 am the platform was moderately full. When the train stopped at Shaw-Howard, people were calling out ‘coming in!’ as they forced the crowd. We all felt pretty smart at that point, thinking of the millions still to pass through Metro doors.

If the election was celebration, the inauguration was work. We didn’t want Obama to make it warmer. We didn’t want him to fix global warming, Guantanamo, green jobs, and pick a puppy in 100 days. We did have a million people on the Mall who wanted to believe. If you had asked a million people to stand in the cold for 12 hours because they believed in themselves, what would have happened? So we believe in someone else for a while, and hopefully do the work.

The cold started getting alarming after sun rise. My toes went from chilly to frigid with sparky bits. The jumbo tron had advice for the elements, including the first, ‘stay dry’. Other than that, your warming station opens in 2 hours and is 300,000 souls away. The five of us sat with our knees together and our feet under a blanket. A guy from Ohio asked us, what are you guys doing under there? “It’s how we make babies”, we replied.

Maybe at some point we’ll forget shivering with disgust at Bush’s speeches. Obama told the world it is a false choice between security and values. He asked America to be a place that created opportunity, with individual ingenuity and collective wisdom. What would it mean, to live your life for your grandchildren instead of the next election, promotion, protest, poem. For me it would mean, what do I want them to be unable to understand. How will they say, “I don’t know how it could be that bad”. It’s what I would say to my great grandmother who couldn’t vote. To the Irish who starved. To the redheads who were burned at the stake. To the Egyptian mummy in the Royal Ontario Museum who died of an abscessed tooth. Time to dream big, everyone. Time to take some risks.