So much to celebrate. Since Obama won the nomination, every time I pass an African American on the street, I want to congratulate him or her. This must be such a wonderful time for a people long subjugated and oppressed. I feel especially good for black kids. If Obama is elected, it will be transformative. What a role model to aspire to. Everything will seem possible.
But, of course, as Terry Dean pointed out in a column in today’s Viewpoints section, Obama’s victory isn’t just about African Americans. Many white Americans share the joy. Many more will share the ecstasy this November if he’s elected. At last we all have something very tangible and triumphant in common. What a fine feeling. Certainly something worth savoring–and sharing.
And speaking of ecstasy, I saw Circle Theatre’s fine production of “Enchanted April” last Sunday–the final performance. What a wonderful play, unabashedly embracing happiness, without being sickeningly sweet. It all begins with a newspaper ad promising “wisteria and sunshine.” The characters end up in “paradiso”–not transformed by Italy, but, as the main character so perfectly malaprops, “translated” by Italy.
Yesterday was a paradiso day–low humidity, syrupy sunlight bathing everything that wasn’t shaded, a day of such visual clarity you felt as if your eyes were young again or, rather, reborn. Happiness eludes us because we can’t believe in its utter simplicity. Being outside on such a day is as much heaven as one can expect from life.
Every spring, something impresses me that I seem never to have noticed before. This year’s revelation: clover flowers. Our lawns, paragons of botanical diversity, contain plenty of clover, but I don’t remember such a crown of white. Mills Park behind Pleasant Home is a good example, but I’ve seen it all over town. Something so simple, yet, collectively, so dazzling. There’s a metaphor here–a model to live by.
I’ve spent most of my life, it seems, wanting to be somewhere else, somewhere I imagined life was fuller, more complete. In the past, I always worried that I might be missing something. “Here” was never good enough. Now it is. In spite of everything life throws at us, here is a good place to be, now is a good time to be alive.