Nov 06 2008
Standing at the Foot of the Mountain
Anytime a show closes, there is a sense of fatigue. In theater we called it “post production let down”. That time between the final curtain of one; and auditions for the next. For many of us theater rats it is a time of aim-less-ness. Throughout the years, I learned little tricks to lessen the icky non-creative, less-than-whole feeling. I thought about those tricks yesterday as I took off the Obama 2008 shirt I almost wore. The election is over and I know better than to wear the shirt that might allow me to feel as if the “show” was still in its run. Today it is important to focus on the next project; the work that will come-after, the first of many steps that will take us all to what-comes-next.
I don’t know how history will recall these first years of the 21st Century in America. I know yesterday I realized there has been little peace and even less tranquility since New Year’s Eve 1999. There are so many young people in this country that remember little of a “time before”. I find that both sad and challenging. It is sad because they have nothing to remember, to use as comparison. It is challenging because the horizon they carry with them is not complete. It does not contain the complete story of what that America was like before.
For many, this election presents a Tabula Rasa; a blank slate to write a new history. For others, it brings on fear and dread. For me, it feels like discovering an old treasure that got lost somewhere deep inside a dark closet. Regardless of your perspective, the point is the perspective is yours. From my orientation and by my count: there are over 120,000,000 perspectives at work in this country today; those are voters who each and every one are processing and coming to terms with whatever meaning they choose to assign Election 2008. Like any other personal moment, we take on this task in our own way and in our own time. Make no mistake, this will take time.
From one of my mentors:
“For those of you who wanted this outcome, we celebrate. For those of you who would have preferred another outcome, we hope you will lend your efforts to the common ground you can find in the outcome to build up a global reality that is characterized by more than fear and hatred. It’s your generation, but also mine and my grandchildren’s. Let’s hope and work for the very best we can become, both individually and collectively.” ~ Gretchen E. Schafft, Ph.D. Applied-Anthropologist-in-Residence, American University, Washington, D.C.
