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baby boomers, family history, genealogy, Greatest Generation, history, inaugeration day, Martin Luther King Day, President, Royal Wedding, stories, United States presidential inauguration, writing
Today is one of those “Intersection” days for me. A point where reality collides with assumptions and beliefs.
After a really long bout of vertigo and a killer sinus infection, I have a lot to catch up on. My blogs are woefully behind on posts and responses. My housework has mounted to the point of near topple-endangerment. The cupboards are bare, and the dog has serious cabin fever. All because Mom took a few sick days.
Oy.
But instead of waking this morning with my renewed sense of balance and pledging my commitment to catching up, I am glued to the television to watch history unfold.
This is one of the moments in time that shouldn’t be overlooked in our own writing. Politics aside I just cannot look away from my television screen. I don’t want to miss out on the big picture of today. This is our American version of a Royal Wedding.
Today’s spectacle is especially historical because our Black President, is swearing in for a second term on Martin Luther King Day.
Beyond the obvious and media fed reasons,why do I think its so special ? Here before our eyes we are watching a measurable shift in our world.
We are collectively treating this day with the same banal ~to~ controversial range of rhetoric we give to every other inauguration
What is the First Lady wearing?
Is the First Daughter sticking out her tongue?
The constant chattering and arguments of what Mr President has done and what he has failed to do…
it is all reliably and blandly present. I think after all is said and done,
the real story of today is just how “run of the mill” and “normal” this day is as Presidential Inaugurations go!
That is huge. We really do live in a changed world.
I do a lot of writing about my Gramcracker. She was born to poor, 1st generation immigrants in 1911 and lived into the new millennium. She was openly and frankly very racist because it was the daily habit of how she was raised. I am frequently reminded of how much the world changed on her “watch.” And, I am amazed by the vast contrast between the world she was born into, and the life that she left nearly 100 years later. In my own Family History writing, I spend quite a bit of time on these topics. I want future generations of my family to viscerally understand what her daily life was like. How swiftly changed our world was while she was here and how incredibly strong her generation was to endure it, to drive it, and to change or not fascinates (and sometimes abhors ) me.
What I want from today though, is to remember this Intersection in Times
I feel like today is one of those “God is tapping you on the shoulder” type of life-moments. This crossing of roads in my life when I realized that in my own time, my own generation ( the baby boomers) has lived through some amazing history. We need to write our own stories too. I think we might be rather mesmerizing to others some day. We are the generation who lived with black and white antenna television, married couples in twin beds on TV , Woodstock, Title IX, Y2K, the end of the Mayan Calendar, the coming and passing of 1984, bio-fuels, living green, and yes...a Black President who is not only the first, but who has also settled into being “just The President”.
Just #45 in line.
President Obama is no longer the first black president, but “simply” the leader of the Free World. A guy with two teenage daughters. A guy who is a husband and a son in law. A guy who is in the news every moment in every corner of the world. That’s a far far cry from Gramcracker’s world.
Oh, and there’s Me! I am here, watching it all. Living this history in my pajamas, in front of my flat screen TV eating the slice of packaged heaven I picked up at The Cheesecake Factory last night when it was near 0. I drove there in my SUV with my seat heaters on high, and debit card in hand. I had my smart phone binging in the console letting me know my Facebook friends “liked” my check-in.
Change Change Change
Yep, this is a big day in many ways. A hallmark, a crossline, a waymark in our civilization. We are all here living it, and it’s pretty easy to just eat cheesecake. I think I should write about this. My generation is certainly not the Greatest Generation, but we have collectively become the Transition Generation. We came in as Babies,hopefully we will leave having made our mark with a positive Boom.
Please take a moment for you and add your own thoughts about today to your family stories today.
We are living history. It’s really kinda cool.
Happy MLK day, Happy Inauguration day, Happy day off day!
PS Michelle darling~ if you are reading this ~ love the bangs 
Wonderful thoughts about the country, the President, and our generation. I do have to admit that I mostly love the phrase ‘topple-endangerment’ – makes me smile. And requires no definition for me!
Words fail me. What you have expressed, I think says it all.
Thank You.
Jose
Like your post… I’m not a baby boomer or American – but I love your message about how we are living history – sent a tingle up my fingers!
Feel better! I’ve dealt with vertigo off and on for the past few years. No one needs that kind of spinning.
Wonderful post – thanks for sharing!
So glad you brought this up. I have thought much lately about writing down some of my own experiences and you have just added to the list of things to talk about. I think one of the “things have changed” moments for me occurred when we re-elected a black president. It was one thing to have groundbreaking history in his first election but the fact that he was elected (by both popular and electoral vote) for a second term really shows that things REALLY have changed.
About ten years ago, when I was teaching, we happened to be discussing cultural changes. In trying to explain this concept to 7 and 8 year-old children I had them look around at their classmates. Notice what country they or their ancestors came from. My class consisted of students were Chinese, Japanese Taiwanese, Ethiopian, Russian, Mexican, African American, Indian, British and we had a few Anglo-Americans. The white students were the minority and the class was mostly made up of Asian and Indian descent.
I then told them that when I was a child my class had one black student and one Chinese student. The rest were white American. Many people still struggled to trust the Japanese after WWII, Mexicans were fairly predominant as I lived in California. There were very Japanese, no Taiwanese, Ethiopian, Russian, British, or Indian people around. Not just in schools but in my neighborhood and none were at my father’s place of work. As people from other countries immigrated to the US, the culture changed because the people changed. Instead of Christmas Songs we have Holiday songs. We don’t pledge allegiance to the flag. Everything used to be written and spoken in English…not anymore. They thought it was all quite interesting.
As we marvel about our ancestors who existed before cars, future generations will marvel about our living without computers. It is all relevant to change.
I love Michelle’s bangs, too. She looks more celebration-like in them.
When I was in college there were civil rights lunch-counter demonstrations in downtown Durham, NC. There was so much racism in this country when I grew up that I could never, ever, have imagined a day like this one. I loved the whole ceremony. Of course, we still have many hurdles etc. etc., but just to take a moment to enjoy the beauty of a poem by a gay Latino poet, the energy of our first black President’s hope for this country, the passion of the American anthems. Maybe we have changed. Maybe we are capable of even more change for the better.
Oh I loved this post. Really made me reflect on my own ancestors and my life as well—so many changes. I do wonder what is ahead that we cannot imagine as well. I love your blog and the way you express your thoughts.
Thanks Michelle, what a touching comment…is this the Michelle with the fab bangs?
How Cool Would That Be ?