New Hope

It's odd being a first generation American from a full family that immigrated through different countries just to be here in the USA. I feel like I should be a flag waving, red/white/blue bleeding, bbq lovin', pick up driving American. I feel like I should appreciate the guns, the laws, the big brother super power that we as a country have become, but the thing is, that the very beauty of being an American is having the prerogative to differ from the government’s perspective. I can want more out of my country. I can hope for the words in the pledge of allegiance to mean something deeper, bigger. I can expect a union that can provide liberty and justice to ALL. Until Blacks make the same salary as Whites, the Gay/Lesbian community can marry freely and every person has an opportunity attain equal health care, I am not sure that that pledge will be recited by my lips.

On Tuesday, things seem to change just a little bit. An eloquent educated man took the oath of presidential office. He was voted by the majority of the people despite the color of his skin or the age on his driver's license. The American people stood together for the first time in my life time and said enough is enough. No more nepotism. No more blurry lines between church and state. No more tapping of our natural resources for personal material gain. No more war. No more.

I watched the inauguration in an auditorium filled with teenagers. My hands were sweaty as he took his vow to our country. I smiled as his nervousness seeped through. I got chills as he addressed the people. I was filled with hope first the first time in my life about the possible pathway that we as a people can walk together. There is no doubt that the promises are weighty and that to accomplish all things for all people is neither possible nor probable, but the hope that has grown exponentially in a short two months is palpable.

I am proud to be an American, one nation under God. Finally.

So many little things....

It's been about a month since I have written. We have passed the entire holiday season without a proper Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or Delightful Kwanzaa from good ol' spiritualmaya, for that I apologize. Now we are entering the middle of January and I successfully made it through knee surgery and my first official wedding event, my Bridal shower. It was lovely! All the ladies together sipping tea and eating scones. Can't wait for all the more fun to come!

What I suppose inspired me to write this grayish Florida morning is that I am covering a friend's class and I was looking at my facebook. Facebook has reconnected so many of us with so many old friends from so many different time periods of our life. I look at my facebook several times a day and I am sure that I am not the only one. I have i-phone application that actually allows me to look at my facebook on the go, just in case some has decided to make a fun comment on my page or post pictures from their last family vacation. I enjoy it; peeking into the permissible slivers of our people's lives.

But at what point do you tell yourself that some of these people are really not your friends or at least haven't been for 15 years and wasn't there something that satisfied you when you let them go? A part of growing up is letting go of certain things in your life...like sleeping in every day until noon, or getting Taco Bell 5 times a week...you move on because you grow up. Is it healthy to reconnect with people that knew you before you really figured out who you were? Isn't the image they have of you as a 14 year old freshman in high different than the person that you have become? And what are the chances that you will sit down and have a heart to heart with that person that now lives in Nebraska, so you can fill them in on all of life's little peaks and valleys?

I wonder that if in the spirit of keeping in touch and peeking in, that there isn't something that is self-deprecating in the process. And if that is the case then, is that healthy?