Oh Happy Day

The 44th President of the United States of America

Barack Hussein Obama

We All Have A Dream

Prophetic, really, that tonight, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is the eve before the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. There is a long way to go on some issues that are very near to me, but I will never forget this feeling, how joyous this is, how historic and significant this is.

And this powerful message has even more meaning today ...

(The famous end of Dr. King's speech):


Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

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."2

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, 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!

Amen.

14,000 Things To Be Happy About

Years ago, when I was in grad school, I visited a friend of mine from college who was living in Ohio. We went to this amazing bookstore, where she pointed out this book to me. I didn't buy it until years later, but sometimes I pull it out and read through it. It's really just a stream-of-consciousness list of things that made the author happy, and many of them really did make me feel happy and comforted. A few of my favorites:

Orchestras
Brand-new notebooks
The Eastern Seaboard
French Toast, butter, and powdered sugar
Eight hours of sleep
Building a model car
Snow outlining the elements of trees’ architecture
After-shower cologne
Glassed-in cupboards
A cardinal’s brilliance against the snow
The brisk dusk of a late October evening
The cool underside of a pillow
Yard sales
Street musicians
Someone laughing
“The Long And Winding Road” by The Beatles
Eating over at someone’s house
Having a picnic on the living room floor
The smell of the sea
Breakfast cooked over an outdoor fire
Having someone to come home to
Steel drums and street dancing
Handed-down Christmas ornaments
The book that made a difference
Sleepy dogs
White cotton t-shirts
Street food
The hazy Chicago skyline growing out of the horizon
Being glad you have each other
Mozart piano concertos
White Christmas lights
Art galleries
French bread
The Chicago Cubs
Hanging out and remembering why you like each other
People-watching from a park bench
Being motioned to come sit by someone
The smell of old school buildings
Watching a thunderstorm
The Atlantic Ocean
Afternoon naps
New Year’s Eve
The Art Institute of Chicago
Pizza and beer
Taking a shower
Getting a really good haircut
Driving to the beach with the windows open and the radio blaring
Warm, dry socks

As much as I tend to dwell on the bad things that are happening around me, this does make me feel a little better ...

Good News, Bad News

I always like to get the bad news out of the way first. I mentioned a while back that our microwave had died, and that we wanted to replace it with an over-the-stove version - but whoever remodeled the kitchen oh, twenty years ago, hung the cabinets too low. So, we've done without for now, and it hasn't seemed a huge deal.


Yesterday morning I started cleaning the kitchen, and put the oven on "self-clean". A couple of hours later I was back in the kitchen and suddenly heard this buzzing electrical sound. I looked over at the stove, and the was some black smoke coming from behind it, an orange glow, then a flash and a pop - and it was dead.

After it had cooled down, Scott pulled it out from the wall and unscrewed the back panel, and it looks like the "motherboard" (or whatever it's called on a stove) had fried. A call to Sears confirmed that the warranty had expired in October, and we can't get someone out to fix it until Thursday. So, we'll have to get creative with dinners. Last night we picked up teriyaki, but we can't afford to eat out every night. We do have a separate indoor electric grill which I'll use, and a crock pot. We don't have any propane for the outdoor grill, and I probably won't refill that just yet since it's (hopefully) only a couple of days. If there's one thing I've discovered, it's that I can get pretty creative about food when I have to.





Oh yeah, the good news - there's witch hazel blooming in the back yard:

And your weekend?

Matterdays We Can Believe In.

Yeah yeah yeah, this is all over everyone's blog. I never claimed to be original. Just cute.