I would be remiss if I did not post something about the inauguration of President Joe Biden, and VP Kamala Harris.  That was an event that I wish that I would have been lucky to attend, not that attendance was possible under the current pandemic restrictions. It was a “normal” inauguration with  no prevarication,  and mangled language.  Normal is something that I look forward to getting used to.  Here are a few words from Prof. Scott Galloway about the occasion.

To have once again a figure in power who speaks in a decent, dignified, unifying manner. 

A president who had the confidence and humility to cede the stage. For surely he knew the highlight would not be his inspiring words at all, but the words and presence of a 22 year-old poet, Amanda Gorman, who set the nation on a new and welcome course:

And yet the dawn is ours

before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn’t broken

but simply unfinished 

…

The new dawn blooms as we free it

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it

The words of the poetess made me feel like weeping. 

A few hours ago I had an email exchange with a friend who is cynical about democracy.  My rejoinder: democracy can be fatal, because it is possible to get what we want.  The exhilaration of freedom is synonymous with freedom’s abyss.

We learn from Plato that γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton “Know Thyself,” was inscribed above the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.  We ought to have inscribed above the entrance to our Capitol,  “Careful What You Want.”  The truth is that our mortality, death, is always close at hand in all of our endeavors.  Keeping that in mind should humble us, a reminder that there is no better alternative than the gamble of democracy.  We have but one life, to be cherished, and to be played with as much intelligence and love as we can muster.

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How about a tune, rhyme and harmony coincident with the brilliant light of the turning point which has been reached?  This one is perfect: Closer To Free by The BoDeans.  The BoDeans, a Wisconsin band that I learned of many years ago from my oldest daughter, Joy.  Joy has impeccable taste in music.  She has been and is, an inspiration to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGLSU9j9K7U

Closer To Free

Everybody wants to live how they wanna live and
Everybody wants to love how they wanna love and
Everybody wants to be closer to free

Everybody wants respect, just a little bit
And everybody needs a chance once in a while
Everybody wants to be closer to free

Everybody one, everybody two, everybody free
Everybody needs to touch, you know now and then and
Everybody wants a good good friend
Everybody wants to be closer to free

I said everybody one, everybody two, everybody free
Everybody wants to live like they wanna live
And everybody wants to love like they wanna love
And everybody wants to be closer to free

Closer to free
Closer to free
Closer to free

lyrics by Kurt Neumann, Sam Llanas