Today I was reminded by Facebook of a blog post I wrote on this day 4 years ago. I was broken hearted. I wore black to work that day. I remember crying, at the drop of a hat, pretty much all day long. The trains in NYC were quiet. People were stunned. The atmosphere in my office was dismal and bleak. Colleagues were quiet, some crying, some wearing black right along with me. So many of us were in shock. Dismay. What had just happened? I think a lot of people can recall that numb feeling that surreal November day.
Reading my blog brought back a whirlwind of feelings that brought tears to my eyes. But today tears stream down my face as I think of the news so many of us have been waiting for for 4 long years. Saturday was a day of rejoicing for many. I felt like a day of liberation. Calm. Peace. Kindness. Joy abundant. I got a text from someone with a picture – “Breaking News” Joe Biden – 46th President of the United States – I wept. I wept just like I am weeping now as I write this. I looked outside my window and up to the sky, and I said, “Thank you, God. Thank you for hearing my prayers.” For you see, I prayed so earnestly for an end to such a dismal, dark and bleak period we found ourselves in starting 4 years ago. I honestly don’t remember weeping so hard while praying for a new president, a new beginning. The word that kept coming to mind in my prayers – kindness. “God, can we please have a man of kindness as our leader? A man who respects other people for who they are. A man who doesn’t bully, but one who cares.” I was never asking for perfection, but I was pleading for something different than what we had known. And I was so thankful that my prayers were heard and answered.
A reporter broke down on Saturday when someone asked him his thoughts. He said, “It’s easier to be a parent today…. it’s easier to tell my kid that this is what character looks like.” To be able to sit with my daughter and say, “Yes honey, the leader of our country is not a bully, is not angry, is not hateful. He’s a kind man who has good intentions. He respects people.” Yes, it was easier to be a parent that day…. and for years to come. She saw me cry Saturday. She rubbed my back every once in awhile and smiled. She remembered the tears from 4 years ago. She knows the tears this year are so very different.
Four years ago I posted the words of a very famous speech. I posted them wanting so badly for us not to forget how to live by the words that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered so many decades ago. Four years ago I felt that we had taken steps back. But today… today I feel as though we have actually taken steps forward. Not only is there a man of kindness and respect to lead our country, there is a woman who will stand along side him to lead. Electing Kamala Harris… we didn’t just take steps forward, we took a big giant leap. My daughter gets to grow up seeing that yes indeed, women can be leaders. Women can be who they are determined to be. Yes, the glass ceiling has been broken. What a beautiful sight to see.
I want to post the same words of that speech that I posted 4 years ago. On that day, I was praying in earnest that we could please find some way back to a place of safety and a place of peace. Today, I post these words with a feeling in my soul, and in my bones, that we as a nation may be able to start healing. One step and one day at a time. I leave these words here with a smile on my face, calm in my heart, and thankful to God for hearing my earnest prayers:
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isaiah 40:4-5) This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
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And in the words of the 46th President of the United States of America – “Keep the faith.”
According to Jolly 