I should be meditating, but I was drinking coffee, and, of course, I had to check in with Andrew Sullivan's blog.
I watched part of Obama's stump speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he spoke about his grandmother. Last night I got choked up when I heard that she had passed away, just one day before she could see her grandson become elected POTUS.
I had tears in my eyes just now, as I heard him talk a bit about her ("It's hard, a little") and about all the "regular heroes" that this country has. Y'know, all this talk about Obama being some sort of celebrity just hasn't rung true to me. Sure, he's charismatic, but it's not the same charisma that one sees in Hollywood people, or those we might call "superstars" (a word coined by Andy Warhol, who came up with the 15 minutes of fame concept).
No, the regular heroes are us. Or they are like my partner, Dick, who works as an Ed Tech at a small elementary school in the middle of nowhere. He doesn't get paid well (and I hope that he isn't mad at me for writing this publicly).
On Halloween, I saw kids run up to Dick and hug him. He's been a hero to many kids. He's touched their lives, maybe even changed them a little. Meanwhile, as we struggle financially, people who push imaginary money around at desks on Wall Street or play imaginary teachers in movies get paid millions of dollars.
My vote today is for people like Madelyn Payne Dunham (Obama's grandmother), all the people who work at public schools around this country, the rest of the world (who's watching our every move), the children who live next door to me, for you, whoever you are, and for me, too.
Now I'm going to finish my coffee.
So far, it's a beautiful day.
Comics note: Charles Schulz was always a political cartoonist, but he was quite good at hiding it.
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