Last week as I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden, I felt a little like I was peeking over the fence at a party next door. And not just in any neighbour’s yard, but the neighbour with a really big estate whose behaviour impacts everyone around them.
Hope
Inauguration Day felt like a light had gone on next door and there was hope for better days to come for all of us. In his speech, Joe Biden said, “I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I am today. There’s nothing we can’t do if we do it together.”
It was the day that Kamala Harris became the first female, black and South Asian Vice President. In her speech later that evening, she encouraged Americans to have, “The courage to see beyond crisis. To do what is hard, to do what is good, to unite, to believe in ourselves, believe in our country, believe in what we can do together.”
The last four years we have seen our neighbours focus on their differences with little emphasis on all that holds them together. And unfortunately, the sentiment seems to have traveled north as well. I am not naïve enough to think that the road forward will be easy, but I felt like the inauguration inspired hope that a road forward is possible.
Amazing Music
If the inauguration is anything to go by, I have to think that Joe Biden and I share similar taste in music – first Lady Gaga, then JLo, then my all-time favourite, Garth Brooks. And THAT was at the ceremony.
The concert that evening included Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Foo Fighters and Tim McGraw, who sang about the Land of Hope and Dreams, Better Days, Times Like These and Undivided. Other stars sang about sunshine coming back and a new dawn; then Katy Perry closed out the party with fireworks.
Millennials and Hope for the Future
The theme of hope was strong, but I do think that Amanda Gorman was the star of the day. That 22-year-old young woman stood before the entire world and spoke so incredibly eloquently about the “Hill we Climb”. Her beautiful poem ended with these words:
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
I have watched the video of her reciting that poem many times since Wednesday and every time I am filled with awe.
You know, millennials and Generation Z’s get a bad reputation, but they regularly inspire me. They may not do things the way we did, but that doesn’t make them wrong.
They question things more than I ever did. They don’t do things just because that’s the way the adults in their lives do them; they look for alternatives and think outside the box. They don’t match their socks or separate their laundry, and the world keeps on spinning. I think we have much to learn from this generation about how to make sense of the crazy world we are inhabiting.
For now, I am going to enjoy the Bernie Sanders memes that are circulating and try to hold onto the hope inspired by peeking through the fence at our neighbour’s party last week.
