Dickens knew what he was talking about when he wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way …”
My heart is filled with such joy at the election of Barack Obama as President and so empty with the passing of proposition 8. I try to console myself with the victory and not look at what was lost.
I don’t know if I can find the correct words to describe what I am in feeling – certainly it won’t be eloquent. Emotions never are adequately expressed with words. For words never seem powerful enough – after all they are just a bunch of letters arranged and then rearranged. (On the matter of letters – can I just say I never noticed how often I use the letter u until the key got stck) Words are used so frequently and casually that meanings become lost.
Yet words have such power. Sticks and stones may indeed break bones but so can words. Words said at a curtain time, in a certain place can drastically change a life. The three letters of DNR on a medical chart. The word guilty to a person standing trial. The words I do to the person you love.
Then there are the words. Words used to express so much, things so big that they come to be meaningless shells. Freedom. Hope. Love.
For all that words are just a bunch of letters arranged and then rearranged I clearly remember how powerful I felt when I realized that I could spell hate, as it was simply hat with an e.
After this election – a lot of words churned around in my head as I tried to vocalize my heart. I couldn’t understand how someone could vote to deny someone else a right. How they could be so fearful of the new President elect? Oh the words – idiot, stupid, bigot – come so easily to mind to describe these people, it scared me.
For I think of my mirror. The person who’s heart is so empty with the election of Obama as President and filled with such joy at the passing of proposition 8. I imagine they console themselves with a victory in defeat. This person who can’t understand how a person could vote the way they did – believe what they believe. How can there be people who are so stupid, who are such idiots.
The paradox continues. People argue for tolerance of their views and values while showing intolerance for those who disagree. People demand their rights while attempting to take away someone else’s.
I wish I had the words to make sense of this, to find a bridge or at least help construct. I wish it could be done, that I had such power, simply by adding an e at the end.
