Proving we’re still alive

Hello, blogosphere.

Chrissy’s post about the election was beautiful. I don’t want to knock it off the top, but it seems that a month is far longer than a blog should have to go without a post. So allow me to engage you in a post-Thanksgiving post.

I admit, my ears are not as attuned to such things as they should be, but I didn’t really hear any fatphobic comments this Thanksgiving season, from my family. Which is an improvement. I heard some “health-conscious” ones, but my grandmother is diabetic, so I was less concerned than I might otherwise have been.

I did hear racist remarks. My cousin (she’s maybe a sophomore in high school) used the n-word.

I did hear sexist remarks. What else is new, really?

By and large, my holidays were alright, and I didn’t get too upset about anything, except my stepmother’s refusal to acknowledge the abusive relationship that is Twilight.

They were alright, that is, until yesterday, when I read about the Wal-Mart worker who was trampled. Again, I come face-to-face with the consumerism that I’ve learned to dread. My families are asking for Christmas lists. I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t really need anything. I have more “stuff” than I know what to do with. Yet they seem disappointed if they can’t put more material goods into my life. I don’t understand it. If there were something I needed, sure, go for it. All I really need is money for food.

I am planning to go the route of asking would-be gift-givers to donate money to charities instead. I don’t expect good reactions to that. I think I’ll get eye rolls and gift cards, instead. What is wrong, I wonder, with asking someone to donate to a charity? It’s what I spend my money on anyway.

It’s not like they listen when I tell them what I do want. Last year I specifically requested that they NOT purchase any Bath & Body Works items – it takes me ages to use them up and I get really sick of the heavy scents. I prefer unscented toiletries, if any at all (I only keep lotion around for emergencies; with my short hair I only need a simple shampoo, and am thinking of switching to the baking soda/vinegar routine; bar soap does it for me; etc.), yet my stocking ended up full of B&BW products. Which, after hanging onto for long enough to be sure I wouldn’t use them, ended up at Goodwill, unopened. I hate that I feel guilty about that.

I have so much. So much to be thankful for. I just want to stop spending it on me – on someone who has pretty much everything she needs – and start spending it on those who hunger and thirst and then die for lack of food and water. If I could take all the money in the entire USA that will be spent on useless junk this holiday season, it would be a lot of money. I would use it to help fund the hospitals that are sewing together the pieces of the women in the Congo who are being raped ceaselessly as a strategy of war. No longer would they have to crouch in a dirty warehouse, urine dribbling out of their bodies because their fistulas prevent them from keeping it inside. I would buy doctors and water and sanitation and a modicum of peace for those women and girls who have guns fired inside their vaginas.

I don’t need stuff. I am eternally thankful for that. All I want for Christmas is the same for others.

No Words.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 is a day I’m never going to forget. It was a day of before and after; an end and a beginning. I will always remember it as a day of change. A day that changed me, and changed our world.

It started, for me, in blackness, silence, and emptiness. Having worked through the night, at 1:45AM I was TA-ing for the documentary classes who had a project due at 12:30PM later that day. The library was nearing closing time, but we were working away. Suddenly, everything went black. We all scrambled for a moment, blind in the darkness, before we pulled out our cell phones for light and gathered our things to leave. News quickly spread that a transformer had blown, plunging my whole campus in darkness.

On my walk home from the library, I was struck by the eerie silence, the heavy darkness, and the absolute stillness of the campus. It seemed desolate. Calm, but in a something’s-wrong sort of way. I went to sleep in a void. The power was back on when I awoke, and I went about my daily business with ease, if not a bit of exhaustion. Around 6:00PM, I prepared for a spontaneous election-results watching party in my Residence Hall’s lounge. By 8:00PM, a small crowd had gathered, and we were cheerily debating about what would happen.

Then, at 10:59PM, with only ten seconds until polls closed on the West Coast, I began to count down. “Ten-nine-eight-seven-six-five-four-three-two-ONE!” CNN flashed, “BREAKING NEWS: BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT!”

And that’s when it happened. A collective shout echoed up around my entire building. Screaming and cheering was heard outside on the Quad. Students were chanting, running around. People we running in and out of the lounge I was in, hugging. Everyone was on phones, calling their loved ones. Firecrackers were going off outside. People were streaking across the Quad. It was chaos. It was exhilaration. It was absolute bliss.

It’s weird to me to think how this night is ending. As I write this now, at around 1:00AM, the cheering hasn’t stopped. There are fireworks going off in the distance. The campus is alive, bright, awake. They’re singing the National Anthem. They’re singing America the Beautiful. The world is electric.

And why? Because of one man, Barack Obama. The President-elect. The 44th President of the United States of America. A man who just a hand-full of minutes ago spoke to 125,000 people in Chicago, and viewers all over the United States. A man who presented a positive, hopeful view of America. A man who brings light, joy, and hope to thousands of people; young, old, black, white, Latino, native American, Asian, fat, thin, homosexual, heterosexual, male, female, etc. He is our President. He is our future. He is America.

I have no words to explain how I feel right now. It’s like the world is bright as day, and the colors are brighter in the trees. The leaves are turning, and falling, and making way for the blankness of snow, for the fresh slate, for the spring. It’s like the bitterness is leaving my tongue, the sulfuric smell is gone from my nose, my glasses have a fresh prescription, and everything feels softer. It’s like there’s an electric pulse, connecting me to thousands of my peers, thousands of my countrymen and women, thousands of citizens of the world.

And I’ve just realized what this feeling is: it’s patriotism. True and utter patriotism, pride, in my country. And hope. Hope for my future. For the future of our world. And the future of everyone I know and love. Our country is in good hands. And this is the first time that I’ve felt like this. This is the first time. I daresay things are changing. The light is back, there’s color in the horizon, and I’m powering through to a new beginning.

Let it start. Let the past go. This is our revolution.

Vote!

Just a brief encouragement to tell EVERYONE to vote today! We all have issues at stake here, so please ACTIVATE, PARTICIPATE and VOTE TODAY!

I’m sure I’ll have some reflection tomorrow on the election results, but for now, please, everyone, just GO VOTE!