This hopeful moment...

Hope, like the dragonfly from Pandora's Box, often arises from our darkest moments.  Similarly, the light of hope I feel today relieves the darkness that has been spinning around us for the past four years.  Do not be fooled.  Hope does not erase imperfections.  But it does allow us to move forward, to improve and grow.  Our national moment of hope, as we dare release our breath and smile as there is dancing and gladness in the streets across our nation, reminds me of the top I wear today.  Using a scrap of shirting a bit too stiff for the pattern I tested with its use.  The back pieced together with material too nice to waste.  A trial run that allowed me to adjust the neckline, create the hem I wanted.  Far from perfect, but functional, useful.  And then ~ I ruined it.  In my own inattention, I splashed it with bleach.  I considered tossing it.  After all, it was just remnant used in a test run. Or was it?  I decided my work deserved more than that.  Though the damaged spots would never be erased, I could still render this patchwork into something beautiful, serviceable.  I picked up my needle, selected thread, and stitched part of me - into the blemishes, the irresponsible splatters.  

It seems that is what most Americans have decided to do as well.  We can take this nation, quilted together via a grand outline in its Constitution that - despite its lofty fabric - failed to include ALL the nation's people, and stitch by stitch, repair the tears, the stains, the holes through which too many have been allowed to fall.  As a nation, we have made mistakes.  Yet, we continue to piece it together.  NO!  One man should never own another.  YES!  Women can vote, own property, hold political office.  NO!  The color of your skin should not determine your right to vote, to go to school, your seat on the bus.  YES!  Marriage is a legal option no matter who you choose to love.  As a nation, we have had some spectacular blind spots. The past four years have shown a klieg light on significant flaws in the fabric of our society.  The very lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, were lost due to our blinders and inattention.  Divisive rhetoric from those we trusted to lead us to a better place built walls.  Rage against a common enemy can build an unstoppable force for change.  Anger turned one against the other exacerbates the smallest of scratches into festering wounds.  Mother Nature, in the form of violent storms, raging fires, and a viral pandemic harshly taught us our economy, schools, and healthcare systems were woefully unprepared for her wrath.  Societal injustices were further highlighted as we watched marginalized communities suffer exponentially greater harm than those on higher rungs of the societal ladder.  As thousands die and millions become infected in OUR country, from a pandemic others are dealing with much more efficiently, we realize the necessity of leaders who rely on science and calls to action as well as the egregious harm when those in power pointedly ignore medical advice; choosing instead to mislead and misinform in an act of political calculus.  

As we cast our votes for new leadership, Americans have demonstrated the desire for a different path.  A new direction.  The seeds of division and hatred, systematically sown and tended for the past four years will not be removed from our land without backbreaking work.  Ingrained practices of systemic racism will not be magically erased.  Equal rights and mutual respect will not suddenly be bestowed.  Neither climate change nor a global pandemic will be easily controlled.  Our course correction will not instantly provide jobs to the 50 million Americans who, through no fault of their own, find themselves unemployed.  It will not return the more than 238,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 to those whose hearts ache for them.  It does not remove the misery of the more than 10 MILLION Americans who have been infected.  It will not bridge the chasm that has eroded relationships between neighbors and within families the past four years of vitriol, hate and mistruths - spewed from the highest office in our land, from the balconies and gardens of the People's House - has caused.  But, together ~ we can.  

Together we can take this country, so full of promise, filled with citizens with fine hearts, littered with noble ideals, and repair its pulled threads.  Correct its crooked seams.  Patch the holes, so that all of us, especially the least among us, are protected.  In this hopeful moment, we can create a country that fits us like our favorite jeans.  That comforts us like our coziest sweater.  That protects us from storms and bitter winds like the strongest coat.  The stains and patches will remain.  But, together in hope, we can make something much stronger and more beautiful, than it was before.

Join me.  Won't you? - love, les