I had good intentions. I really, really had good intentions. Those intentions were to blog on a frequent basis. When I first began my blog many months ago, I was pretty good about making those frequent entries. In fact there were times when I was posting something every day.
That was cool, but it is time consuming, because I want to make sure things are well written, grammatically correct, and...oh yeah...INTERESTING! The reason I obsess about the writing is that I feel that it is important to project a professional image, even posting personal blog postings.
And another reason that factors in is that I have to decide exactly how much of my life to expose online. No offense to anyone who reads this, but you don't have a right to know everything about my life.
It took me until January 20th to blog about our Christmas and New Year's happenings. So I guess that it should be no surprise that it has taken me until near the end of January to blog about the inauguration of Barack Obama. But here goes...
Like many people, I was at work on Inauguration Day. Luckily, the gym at the office has several TVs, so I made it a point to go to the gym early that day. I got there, dressed out, and got on one of the treadmills very close to the TVs right before the ceremonies got under way. Luckily, they had the volume turned up on the TVs so that you could hear the broadcasts without having to listen to an FM radio tuned to the stations. (And I use an iPod, which doesn't have an FM receiver.)
Unfortunately, I got there in time to be subjected to Aretha Franklin's caterwallering. I don't know if 'caterwallering' is a real word, but it's how I can best describe what she did. I liked some of her earlier performances. Suffice it to say, her better days are behind her. But I did not something in her facial expression that I'll mention below.
Then came Joe Biden's oath. All I could think was "dear God, please don't let that man speak". Why? Because he is a windbag, and if they'd let him speak, we might still be awaiting Obama's oath-taking.
When it came time for Obama's oath and speech, I slowed down on the treadmill to a brisk walk, because running all-out caused too much noise, and I wanted to be able to listen to it all. The flubbing false-start of the oath has been played all over the media, so people know all about that.
I wasn't too impressed by his speech, but that is because I am admittedly against the policies that he espoused when campaigning for the job and has started carrying out. But I get the significance of having the first black President. Anyone who saw the emotion on the face of Aretha Franklin during her performance (and maybe that factored into the quality of that performance), and of the other black Americans in the crowd.
I cannot imagine what it must be like for people who have gone from experiencing civil rights as it was in the 1950's, 60's, etc., to now have a President who "looks like them" (as I've heard it read and seen it written). This aspect of Obama's presidency, I dig. It might be the only aspect about which I can say that (given my opposition to his policies), but it is a valid one to recognize.
That every black child in the United States doesn't have to simply imagine the possibilty of something that has never been as now being possible is a good thing. I hope they all gaze at their TVs when he's on and daydream "...wow...maybe someday...I...could be the President". A side product of their daydreaming during those times, of course, is that maybe-just-maybe they won't absorb his policies... <smile>
And maybe I'll give Aretha a break this time. Yeah...these are interesting times. It should make for an interesting next few years.

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