madness, and a little bit of hope

Im pretty sure this has been said like a million times by now already, and I know I pretend to be original and all but deep down inside Im really just a shallow flag-follower. (nah, Im not, but I still wanna add my voice to the mix). There's a black man in the white house. For the first time ever! I was looking at his story and I can't seem to be able to stop marvelling. I mean this guy is like 47, he's never been to Washington before, he was born by a Kenyan father (although I really do maintain, there is not a single drop of Kenyanness in the guy, why we're insisting he's a "son of the soil" is a bit beyond me!), this was his first time running for high office, he was also a first-time senator, and he didn't just win, he won by a landslide. He stands up to speak and everyone shuts up and listens. Back in '04 when he was delivering the DNC keynote address by the way me I think he even overshadowed Kerry himself. How does one man manage to do that?? These are some of the things you just can't explain, but you know you want to be a part of. Early on in the campaign the Obama effect became pretty clear, when he started to catch up with Hillary. He didn't bring an imposing larger-than-life presence to the table, he didn't bring experience, he wasn't as well known going in as was everyone else, and basically the odds were all stacked against him. All he brought was that one word: hope. The promise of a better tomorrow. And it soon became apparent that he had a gift - he could galvanise and excite people like no one else could. He was all about the future. And the longer the campaigns lasted, the more people, yours truly included, crossed over to his side. Turns out no one really stood a chance against the force that was Obama.

And then I was thinking about his kids. Im moved by the guy and Im all the way across the Atlantic. So how must it be for them, right there in the same house as him. I mean, how do you not excel? How do you not turn out phenomenal having grown up in such an environment? With a father like that, and a mother like that? In a country like that? I saw the sixth season of The Apprentice and on there Trump brought his daughter Ivanka to be his eyes and ears, the thing George used to do, and she's a bit of a story herself, having gone to the Wharton School of Business. Same as Bill and Hillary's Chelsea. Hillary wrote a book, about her life, and she called it Living History. And I find the title so apt, coz basically as the president of the United States you have a say in like everything that happens of significance on the world stage. How beautiful is that? To be able to say you've lived history, you know, that you were right there in the center of it all when it happened. It's a many-facetted thing, history. So much so that even Fidel Castro knew it had a place for him when he told the court after being arrested for leading a rebellion against the government of the time:
"I know that imprisonment will be harder for me than it has ever been for anyone, filled with cowardly threats and hideous cruelty. But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me."

Anyway, Obama. The stories about people who get inspired aren't false. I know, I've felt it too. Having read about him and Welch and Iacocca, Im starting to think that maybe I do want to be in public arena. Im still sure it's not politics, but Id really like if one day someone walked up to me and told that they're who they've become because of me. Id be overcome! I wanna find out some time that parents tell their kids to go study if they want to be like me. And I'd like to know that all those people who used to see me as an underdog now wish they were me. One day. We get these instances every so often in our lives, that arouse feelings within us. They stay with us. As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered. And remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped. And movement stopped. For much, much more than a moment. And then all of a sudden, the moment's gone. But at the end of it all, I like Barack, still believe in a place called hope.

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