Living history

I’ve been thinking a lot of putting my hands on my keyboard, since the election, since Christmas, since – God knows – January 6, but … well, there are a lot of reasons I haven’t. Everything has moved very fast. Everything – except for the election, has been pretty awful, and obviously the election hasn’t exactly brought unalloyed joy.

It’s January 16 a little before 2:00 EST. Joe Biden is giving a speech about the science team he has put into place, a speech that I doubt all that many people are watching right now. It’s not a huge speech, it’s not about a major issue or event as such, it’s about the team he’s putting into place to handle this thing some people call “science”. And in speaking of the possibilities of what scientific exploration can bring – like 3D printing organs – he said “Imagine. Imagine.” And I started to cry, out of nowhere, because how long has it been since there’s been an inspirational speech coming from a high level politician? How long has it been since someone with the right to call himself President said anything like “Imagine” without meaning to inspire his listeners to imagine something … good?

His voice is gentle, steady, sincere. And he keeps saying these things to make me cry. “If any of your children are listening, I want them to know – you can do anything!” Has the current, outgoing president ever, ever said anything like that?

It’s not groundbreaking. It’s not writing or eloquence that will go down in history. But it’s like sweet cold water when you’re dying of thirst.

Discovery and hope. Gratitude and humor. I don’t know what to do with that anymore. Won’t it be nice to get used to this sort of thing again?