Snuggled in cozy around the TV with a handful of my favorite people, after long hours of back and forth poll results. We first watched McCain step out, then Obama step up with an acceptance speech that left me openly crying, goose bumped and amazed. You see, I hadn't really believed it was possible until I saw it happen. My faith in my country was so cynically limp that it simply did not exist...
On my drive home I stopped by to see a friend just off Hawthorne and as I got out of the car I heard the most amazing rumpus coming from the main drag. We bundled up and followed the noise & firework smoke. It was magnetic, drum beats pulled like a primal calling though the night air. Strangers gifted us a half drunk bottle of champagne as we rushed by and without thought to good sense we drank it without question....
Arriving on the corner of Hawthorne where the Baghdad theater marquee still announced in bright lights "2008 elections".... nothing short of madness. The madness of hope, of joy of possibility, the air electric with tribal sounding drums and smoke and voices raised in screams of celebration the likeness of which I've only ever witnessed at a rock show or sports event ... my heart exploded and reached out to join in the sheer celebration of my people. Men in suits reveling with dreadlocks & pink hair, LL Bean embracing hipsters ....everywhere I looked people looked me in the eye right back and joyfully held my gaze.
But where were the drums coming from? I searched the crowd looking for a stage or drum circle or some such organized thing.... and through the crowd I see the crazed eyes of young people with sticks circled around a trash can... making music! this drumming that called us through the night, that drove this crowd to dance and filled my soul with hope was coming from a trash can!
And it struck me, there was no organizer for this party. There was no DJ, band or headliner. There was no predetermined ideal for this gathering ..... this was purely the magnetic pull of a hope shared between people so long held in the darkness. This was a true festival.
The hope and faith and love I soaked up under the lights of the Baghdad theater last night has left me with a warming place in my soul, a feeling unlike any I have ever really known.... something I can only describe as faith in the possibility of my country.
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