HOPE AND LOVE IN THE NEW YEAR

This is Bettye LaVette singing Reign On Me to honor the Who at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors show from the other night. I could barely breathe it was so good. Joss Stone, Dave Grohl and Rob Thomas also performed and at the very end the curtain behind the band opened to reveal the New York City Firefighters and Police Officers singing Teenage Wasteland - a thank you to the Who for reuniting to play the concert for New York City after 9/11.




Happy New Year!

I am happy to leave 2008 behind and feeling hopeful for 2009 - but then this is how I usually feel at the beginning of anything. I remember the beginning of each school year I would get my new school supplies and vow to keep my Pee Chees clean and do all my homework on time. Then, inevitably the lack of focus in class would lead to Pee Chee doodling and my natual inclination toward procrastination would lead to a day late on homework and then two and so on.
The only reason I believe this year will be different is because I'm not making those kinds of promises to myself. The only real intention I'm setting this year is to be be in today and to be gentle with myself, and by extension, with others.

Last year started out sad with Nana's death and by the end of the year was much sadder and more stressful for so many reasons. This is not to say that there wasn't love and laughing and joy and good times - can you say President Elect Obama? but mostly I was tired.

Not a whole lot has changed except for that last digit and it will most likely take me a couple weeks before I start writing that correctly on checks and documents, but I still feel hopeful because a new year is kind of like a new Pee Chee - it's fresh and clean and there's no scribbling on it yet.

I'm looking forward to the Obama presidency (Lord please keep him safe), not because I think that all of our woes as a country will be fixed, but because I really believe that the only thing that trickles down in this country is intention and the man has the best intentions for all of us. I have so much respect for him and his willingness to step into this mess. I believe we can make it better because at the end of the day this is a great country populated with amazing people and we have the freedom and opportunity to create a better world.

I'm looking forward to what will get written this year. Maybe love? Some travel? Money? (it could happen) New adventures not yet imagined?

In any case let love reign on us all - I'm ready.