Coffee Talk

seekingpeace As some of you know who may occasionally check this blog, I wrote my master’s thesis on the work of Mary Pipher. Several years have passed since then. With each new book Pipher has produced, I’ve eagerly read and enjoyed them. Her common sense approach to life and its challenges seems like something that is often missing from our society, and something that is sorely needed now more than ever.

In Pipher’s latest book, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World, she discusses how the fame she encountered with the publication of Reviving Ophelia affected her. It ultimately led to a private meltdown. This situation caused her to look back upon her life and examine how she arrived at this point. The book is really a memoir, but it is also instructive. Her particular story has universal elements to which we all can relate.

As many of my friends and family know, I was fortunate to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on January 20th this year. Thanks to my cousin, Jan, and her family, I had an invitation and a place to stay. Yes it was cold and there were two million other people to deal with, but it was definitely worth it.

On Saturday, January 17th, Jan and I visited the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln – One Life: The Mask of Lincoln. When we walked in, the newest acquisition was featured – the Shepard Fairey portrait of Barack Obama. It was very popular as you can imagine. The staff was very welcoming and allowed people to take pictures of it. obama-national-portrait-gallery So Jan and I had to do this (of course)! While there, we also viewed a really interesting exhibit – Women of Our Time: Twentieth-Century Photographs.

On Sunday afternoon, Jan and I attended the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. We actually ended up quite close, although having a clear view of the show was impossible. linc-ww2 Interestingly, when we couldn’t see the jumbotron to the left of the memorial (as you looked at it), there were so many people with their digital cameras up in the air, we could see what was happening on their mini-screens. Although it was a cold day, we were actually fairly warm because of all the body heat. At times, the crowd was so packed (pre-show and during the early part) that you could literally quit trying to keep yourself upright because there was nowhere for you to fall (the bodies were that tight). Everyone was happy and in a good mood though. At one point before the concert started people climbed a tree near us and then someone handed them a life size cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama. The crowd cheered and cheered. tree1 When Barack fell out of the tree, a very audible “Ohhhhh,” was heard. Too funny!

I should also mention that from the moment we got off the metro and were routed toward the Mall for the concert, there were street vendors everywhere. We saw a few on Saturday, but this was extreme. They literally lined the sidewalks. Of course there were the T-shirts, hats, scarves, gloves, posters, key chains, etc. However, I was rather amused to see earrings that were Obama’s face. And, at one point, some guy yelled, “Get your Obama condoms!” Now that was a new one. As you can imagine, Inauguration Day had just as many, if not more, vendors. Everything had Obama’s picture on it – even metro and train tickets!

On January 20th, we left the house at 5:45 AM to travel to a VRE (Virginia Rail Express) station at Backlick Road. We met some of my cousin’s friends and fellow campaign workers there. We boarded the train about 7:15 AM and headed into the city to the L’Enfant station. We arrived about 7:50 AM. This was definitely the way to travel as our train was not crowded at all. A couple times during the journey we could see a metro train on a parallel track and its cars were absolutely packed. We heard on the local NPR station that morning that 100,000 people had been counted on the metro system by 6 AM. [Later that day we heard that 900,000 had used it by 6 PM.] Anyway, when we arrived, our group took a few photos and then we were on our ways to our respective inaugural zones. inauguralgroup

We had tickets for the silver zone (Jan, her husband Chris, me, and two campaign friends – Todd, and Barb). [Photo above is courtesy of Todd.]

Inaugural and train tickets

As we were ready to cross Independence Avenue, the crowd was stopped for a small motorcade. As we waited, we happened to see David Axelrod - Obama’s senior advisor – drive by. After about an hour we made it through security, which was lined up all along the edges of the Mall. We decided to stake our standing claim where we could see the Capitol and a jumbotron (see the yellow dot “we were here” in the photo below). It was very cold and the wind increasingly picked up as the morning moved along. It also felt colder because people weren’t as packed in as at the Sunday concert. mall1

Again, everyone was HAPPY! The Marine band was playing and the big screens were running, showing various dignitaries driving up to the Capitol, walking through the building, and sitting on the dais. Occasionally a big wave of cheering or chanting (“Yes We Can! or O-BA-MA!”) would occur, rolling all along the Mall. The first time the crowd really reacted was when Senator Ted Kennedy was shown on screen. The crowd went wild again for Al and Tipper Gore, the Clintons, the Carters, the Bidens, and, of course, the Obama girls and their grandmother, Michelle Obama, and the President-Elect. Interestingly, when the screen showed Senator Joe Lieberman, who actively campaigned for John McCain and spoke at the Republican National Convention, the crowd booed. He was obviously not a favorite.

At that point, I wondered what the crowd would do when George Bush and Dick Cheney made their appearances. One of my group mates made the comment during the morning that Dick Cheney, appearing in a wheelchair because he threw his back out the day before, would look like “Old Mr. Potter” from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. And HE DID! Actually, the jumbotron screens didn’t show much of Cheney. In fact people around me began to wonder if he would attend. It seemed he was wheeled in right before the ceremony began, perhaps by design. He and George W. didn’t really receive the massive boos I thought they might. I think this was because George W. was often showed with Obama on screen and nobody wanted to appear to be booing the new guy and, as I said, Cheney was hardly shown.

Lest my dear reader think it was a completely partisan crowd, it wasn’t. There were great cheers for Colin Powell and the senior Bushes, especially when Bill Clinton embraced George H.W. Bush. Maria Shriver and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also received a cheer.

When Joe Biden completed the oath, there was (of course) much cheering. biden All around me you heard lots of happy comments like, “At least Cheney’s gone now!” I have to admit that I, too, experienced a sense of relief at that.

When Barack Obama took the oath and the Chief Justice fumbled it, we weren’t exactly sure who made the mistake at the time. Because of the sound delay, you couldn’t be sure what happened (until you arrived home and saw the endless replays of it on TV). Once the oath was completed and the cannons were shooting and the “Ruffles and Flourishes”/”Hail to the Chief” was playing, the crowd was absolutely euphoric. The cheering was so loud and ebullient you could barely hear the cannons. [Video is courtesy of Todd - one of my silver group mates] obama

Other observations:

Aretha Franklin was great. Only the Queen of Soul could wear that hat so well.
There were sharp shooters all over. We were directly across from the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian), and we could easily see two on the roof. In fact, there were lots of security people in the crowd. Although you can’t see the big automatic rifle this federal agent was carrying, here is what greeted us at the L’Enfant station. [Photo below is courtesy of Todd.]
When Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill were playing that wonderful piece by John Williams, there were hundreds of birds (gulls, I presume) soaring and riding the air currents over the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol. Their flight seemed very complementary to the music.
The news outlets estimated that there were 1.8-2 million people on the Mall for the inauguration. The next morning we learned that not one arrest was made. Wow!

When the cermony was over it actually took us more time to leave than it did to arrive. That many people can move only so fast through the available street outlets. As we were slowly making our way off the Mall, we could still see “our” jumbotron and we were able to see the official goodbye from the Obamas and Bidens to the Bushes (as they boarded the Marine One helicopter to head for Andrews Air Force Base). We saw it take off (on screen) from behind the Capitol and soon it was flying over us. When that occurred a genuinely happy roar went up from the crowd. I think people were just so glad that this last eight years were officially done. Also, the crowd around me began to sing “Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, Hey, Hey, Hey – Good-bye.” I have to admit that was amusing. After I came home, I was reading the weekly Garrison Keillor column in our paper, and he also described this moment in much the same way.