I'm not a resolution guy. I prefer to use the new year as a chance to reflect on whatI'veleanedin the past year. I think the lesson of the past year for me was the lesson of grace. (Hi Grace!)
I think about watching a gymnastics routine, or a figure skater, ora basketball player who's in the zone, and sinking every shot. What they do is beautiful to watch. There is a flow and rhythm to what they do that you can't look away from. It is graceful. But what they're doing is hard as hell. When a figure skater finishes her routine, she is drenched in sweat, panting, and exhausted. Thousands of hours of practice got her to that point, and she will have to leave the ice, and wrap her legs in ice to combat the strain put on her muscles. She will probably have permanent damage to her joints from theyears of competition. But even though what we're watching is the limits of human physical exertion, all we see is the gracefulness of her movements.
The same goes for just about any human endeavor. We sometimes have this ability to rise above the individual components of our actions and surpass the effort. Sometimes this is a completely accidental thing. And sometimes it is the result of a mighty struggle. But I think we all have it in us to reach that state of grace. The real struggle is recognizing it in ourselves and others.
There's no doubt that from here on out 2008 will be the year of Obama. This idea of Grace took root in my head back during the democratic primary. It was During the Reverend Wright dustup, after he had tried to salvage the situation with his speech on race. A few Weeks later ReverendWright was back in thenews,seemingly doing verything he could to disrupt Obama's chances. Obama gave a press conference disavowing the Rev. and at the beginning of it was the only timeduring the entire campaign where he slipped and showed the strain of what he was doing. All politics aside, he was just a person doing something difficult. And he shook it off and did whathe had to do. I pretty much knew at that moment he was going to win the thing. And for the rest of the campaign,he just got better.
Ignoring the historical, racial, and political achievment of what he did, how much the country and the world needs a change, left vs. right, and all that, I learned one thing. The joy that I felt on election night came from knowing that looking back on 2008, we're not going to remember the shitty economy, or the war, or the bizarre politics, or the slimey residue of the Bush/Cheney years.
We'll just remember watching a guy doing a really hard thing, really, really well. Gracefully.
And what that has to do with Prince, I really don't know.
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billyfleetwood's journal
