Something Very Good by saille is planting praxis, Eidhnean entwines
January 21st, 2009 8:38 PMthe first streetcorner
After four hours of sleep and a long-delayed trip in through the metro, we checked out this street corner, but security halfway up the street was already beginning to turn folks away. Not fantastic.
second corner
Milling about from closed entrance to closed entrance, we stopped at another nearby street corner and encountered this rather negative, if well-meant, fellow. Still not fantastic.
last corner
Finally, through a maze of blocked-off streets, we came to one last quiet corner. And while we couldn't see a thing save military police and secret service folks (and, briefly, one ambulance whose possible significance we would only later come to understand), something fantastic did, indeed happen. Away from the milling crowds and within quick retreat distance to a warm cafe, booming from the direction of this picture came the echoing unmistakable sound of President Barack Obama's inaugural speech.
saille on final street corner
something fantastic is happening.
Eidhnean and sir not appearing on this website on street corner
listening to something fantastic happening.
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Honestly, the crowds outside shouting and celebrating and not rioting made for a great experience as well. The only things we missed were via a jumbotron, and we caught all of that once we got back home. For me, it was an equally worthwhile experience to what huddling at the back of the Mall would have been. I thnk it was a lot more nervous of an event outside of sight range -- while this is the first time in my life I've been glad of excessive security in DC, outside of visual and sometimes auditory range of the events of the day, we really only had the occasional observation of MPs and Secret Service not panicking to reassure us everything was going well, until we found a corner where we could at least listen. And said guard folk were actually nice to us, in a way I haven't seen in many years. I could feel the change in their relieved faces every time we spoke with them, which I did without fear for the first time in my adult life. I am looking forward to working for the same things I have been without feeling like some antiamerican traitor and fearing my government for caring about peace and the environment.
In this new vote economy, I appreciate your vote and find it right and good because we only got up at 7am and have a less fantastic story than you getting up before 4 and having a better story for the same event. While my co-conspirator came all the way up from Florida when she did in order to attend the inauguration and our attempts at ticket-wrangling were frustratingly thorough and crossed many states, at the end of the day, your adventure was far greater and more determined, and people ought to vote for it more.
And it's good to see you back!
I find that even the interaction of people on the Metro made this day a great experience, honestly.
(If I had remembered my own camera and) If it hadn't been an intrusive, please-Ma'am-put-that-away experience, I would have spent the day taking pictures of happy, calm Secret Service folks, MPs and volunteers as much as of revelers and fellow celebrants.
(I also wish I'd seen more of Spidere's Something Very Good; it seems to have gone pfft.) Dur, thx. :P
It's there! Spidere did it as 'everyday life' as he skipped work/school for it :)
Something fantastic indeed. I don't know why, but I hadn't thought of going somewhere you fully expected something fantastic to happen. :)
I'm sorry you didn't make it in with us, but I'm glad you came down to share the moment. Truly amazing--I feel like there is a real change, and am excited about working to build a new future.
Also, I'm still slow getting back into this new vote economy--my apologies if my 2 point vote is stingy under the current vote generation mechanism. I mean only the best. :)