Tag: United States of America

Nobel Committee to America; Please Be On Your Best Behavior

The world is watching us and begging us to think of others.  That is what the Nobel committee has said so effectively by giving the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama before he has even done anything. 

I fear, that they fear, that we, the self-absorbed people of the United States of America (Congress, lobbyists, protesters, everyone) are going to continue to squabble like kids in the back seat of a car, screaming and crying over who got the biggest piece of candy (or healthcare or bank loans) while Daddy is trying to avoid a freeway accident and Mommy is trying to find the exit on the map of an unfamiliar city on the way to a very important family wedding where everyone is supposed to look pretty, act nice, and for God’s sake behave.

We’ve got the good pilot

I have been a weepy mess, tearing up  several times a day, ever since Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger ditched a US Airways jet safely in the Hudson River last Thursday. The cinema-cheesy symbolism went straight to my core and I am convinced that the United States of America is an airplane and Barack Obama is the cool, calm Carey Grant/Sidney Poitier/Jimmy Stewart type genius pilot who is going to save us all. Or not.  Everything makes me tear up.  Boats. Airplanes. People asking me what kind of coat I have because they need to buy a warm one before they leave for Washington, DC  for the Inauguration. Twitters from friends who are on their way to DC or already in DC.   Martin Luther King Day. Fresh snow.  Civil Rights Movement veterans on CNN.   My husband telling me Obama chose a Nobel prize winning physicist as his energy secretary.  Listening to “This American Life”.  Miley Cyrus in a grown-up red dress.  Malia and Sasha Obama taking pictures of Miley Cyrus.  My 8-year-old rolling her eyes because I am tearing up because I am watching both my kid and  Malia Obama mouth the words to the Disney tween songs they both know by heart.  Reading the Inauguration Parade lineup that includes both the Crow Nation of Montana and the Brooklyn Music and Arts Program.  I’m just sitting here with my seatbelt on looking out the window at the water putting all my faith and hope in the pilot as my life flashes before my eyes and I pray for a safe landing:  Ourfatherwhoartinheavenhallowedbethynamethykingdomcomethywillbedone-onearthaseitisinheavengiveusthisdayourdailybreadandforgiveusourtrespasses-asweforgivethosewhotrespassagainstusandleadusnotintotemptation-anddeliverusfromevil-AMEN