Ben McKeown

A couple
a man, a woman
Alive today, strolling smiling
through the corridor of the prism of
history
I see Today becoming
Forever
I see Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy -
Obama.

Hand in hand and slowly
in my mind they walk
and wave not fading so much as
transcending,
the warm and brilliant light of
eternity
casting their hopeful image on the
photographic paper of benevolent
immortality.

Change awakens.

—————

Yesterday for me was in a word, intense.  In a way that I don’t believe I have ever experienced, the events of yesterday made me feel proud.  Intensely proud.  I felt good, deeply good, stirred somehow.  The feeling was so intense, in fact, that I have yet to completely emerge from the moment.  Each wonderful photo I find online brings me again close to wonderfully joyful tears.  It’s truly as if the energy of the millions on Washington’s National Mall somehow reached me; I finally feel it: We.

We.  My country, my community, my neighbors, the strangers I see each day, my world… We.  Yesterday brought beautiful expansion to a far too empty concept.  We.

We did something amazing.  Really, amazing.  We crossed a bridge.  Built one, in fact!  We grew, we learned.  We - we - proved that humanity, as it happens, does have the ability to progress, to never be satisfied with injustice, to truly flourish.  It is this collective energy, this human ability that embodies for me what I feel is truly divine.  We.

Still now words seem pitifully insufficient.  I don’t feel remotely close to able to articulate the deep and raw elation I feel.  I do feel strongly compelled, however, to document these raw feelings, even if only for my own future recollection.  There were a series of glowing moments yesterday that truly resonated with me.

As the inauguration ceremonies began, I felt that my feelings came too quickly to rely on memory for recording.  I decided to write, moment by moment, what I was experiencing:

It’s the second time in a few months when I am simply overwhelmed with the gravity of the moment.  I want to write about it, I want to record it for posterity, but I am simply too full.  I am lost in enormity of this morsel of time, which I believe will forever glow as purely monumental.

There are over a million people standing on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  I am seated comfortably on my couch watching the events on TV.  It’s snowing outside.  It feels good.
11:00 AM
I feel like we are seeing a regular citizen move into the White House.  It’s a wonderful, American feeling.
11:12 AM
Just saw Al Gore walk through the Capitol Building.  Amazing that 8 years ago, he should have actually been the president.  What, I wonder, would have happened if the supreme court hadn’t decided in favor of Bush?
11:15 AM
Bill and Hillary walking through the Capitol Building.  They were preceded by George H.W. Bush, Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Dan Quayle, Jimmy Carter, among others.  This is a venerable parade of modern American history.  Simply phenomenal.
11:19 AM
The wide shot of the National Mall really makes me realize how monumental this event is.  Words simply cannot describe it.  Bryan is there.  We are all a part of something simply incredible.
11:22 AM
Bill and HIllary just introduced to the crowd.  Big ovation.  I just asked Philip what will happen when George W. Comes through.  This is incredible.  History books are literally being written.
11:25 AM
They showed a shot of the movers at the White House.  Cardboard boxes being unloaded from white moving trucks.  I thought for a moment about how it must be terrible to not be able to watch the inauguration ceremonies for those movers, then I quickly realized what an absolute honor it must be for those workers.  They are as much a part of anything as anyone.
The Obama girls and their grandmother just walked through the capital building.  I hardly have words to describe my feeling.  I gasped.  So proud.  I will vote for one of them for president in several years.
11:30
Malia just pulled a digital camera out of her pocket.  Again, I feel like we have elected a real, authentic, and humble family.  We can absolutely relate to these folks.  We can relate.
11:32 AM
George Bush and Dick Cheney walking through the capital.  Cheney in a wheelchair.  He was rolled to the side, Bush left alone to walk at the back of the line.  No one speaking.   We have been waiting a long, long time to see this.  They are leaving.  They are being asked to leave.  It is peaceful, it is based on the consensus of the majority.  History is being made as he walks, and to the undeniable vindication of many, it is absolutely not redeeming him.
11:35 AM
Cheney now being wheeled through to the platform.  He looks old and quite honestly decrepit in his wheelchair.
Bush and Cheney just introduced to the crowd.  See my above thought for reaction.
11:36 AM
A purely beaming Joe Biden is now walking through the Capital.  Again, I am proud.
11:38 AM
The first shot of Barack Obama as he walks through the capitol building.  He is solitary.  He looks pensive.
The camera pans across the enormous crowd on the Mall.  I am breathless.  Just breathless.  My heart is beating faster… he will be introduced in just a moment.  I am not sure I’ll be able to write it…
11:42 AM
A woman in the crowd is holding a sign that simply says “Wow”.  Perfect.
11:44 AM
He is introduced.
The crowd.  They represent him.  He represents them.  This election is not about those gathered at the Capitol Building.  This election is about what Lester Hold described as the “roar” that just echoed across the entire country.
11:46 AM
Got a text message from my mom that says “Really proud to be an American.”  I respond, “Me too.”  I am near tears.
11:50 AM
Rick Warren delivers the invocation.  It is passionate, it is humble.  “May we have a new birth of clarity in our aims.”  Today is a day of acceptance, of understanding, of humility, of progress.
11:54 AM
Aretha sings My Country Tis of Thee.  Chills.  I say Amen.
“Let Freedom Ring.”  Again, Amen.
11:51 AM
Joe Biden is sworn in.  Cheney, I realize, will never again be Vice President.  Wow.
11:59 AM
I am truly thankful for the ritual, for the ceremony.
12:01 PM
Yo Yo Ma (and others) play an original John Williams composition.  It is beyond beautiful.  I hear myself think “God Bless America.”
12:04 PM
The music made me truthfully breathless.  I am breathing heavily.
Dianne Feinstein introduces Barack Obama.  I am completely transfixed.

I watched the speech enraptured.  Later, I wrote this…

I remember these moments from the speech:
- holding back tears in the presence of Philip (my roommate)
- Dad texts me “Really proud to be an American.”; I respond “Amen, amen, amen!”
- The image of a helpless George Bush watching with an expression that looked reflective, small, and a bit frightened.
- From the perspective of the Capitol, the throngs upon throngs of admirers and American pilgrims are a part of an image of history in composition.
- Joseph Lowery’s benediction left me spiritually overflowing.

Finally, while I was sitting in the quiet press room at Cameron Indoor Stadium, I wrote the above poem.  It’s obviously too soon to truly recount in any organized fashion, as indicated by my formless sputterings here, but I feel I should at least try.  As the moment drifts into the past, perhaps my analysis will become more astute, more describable, more concrete.  Now though, I still feel elated.

And I am hopeful.