I just got home and it was a good day today. I say good mostly because I have a job. A job that pays well. This is more than a fair number of people in my neighborhood can say. Sure, my day came with all the requisite absurdity of any day in big city America. Noise. Aloofness. Frustration. Filth. Poverty. Silence. Intensity. Elation. Wealth.
I’m writing tonight because on my way up the stairs leading out of my subway stop I stopped a moment, covered as I was in a thin film of sweat and mass transit grime, to listen to three men singing “This Little Light of Mine” along with an impromptu 4th member of their group. She was 5’8″ish, thin, with dark brown skin and thick, raven hair. She was dressed in business attire: black heels and skirt, a royal blue blouse. Her right heel click-clacked a righteous rhythm on the worn floor tiles as her shrill soprano voice, confident and in key, sang to the walls, turnstyles, and rush-hour passersby.
“On my way to work,” she sang as the chorus of men, all bouncing knees and swaying heads, answered back, “I’m gonna let it shine.” I smiled. They’re a bit of a scarce commodity these days- smiles.
I don’t care if you’re religious or even a fan of the song. The point is that the soul of America, the thing we are all presumably fighting for one post, one protest, one donation, one rally, one youtube link, one “special report,” one vote at a time is renewed and manifested in moments like these. For at least a moment four people were just Happy Singers- an impromptu identity more genuine and American than any you’ll find on pollster’s questionnaires or voter registration forms.
I encourage you to look for these moments no matter how busy you are, how caught up in your life and in this election you might be.
After November 4th, the mission to “save” America doesn’t stop. Curiously though the rhetoric will. The people we were encouraged to vilify and despise and rally against just 24 hours ago will go back to being our teachers, parents, bus drivers, bosses, colleagues, friends, band mates, volunteers, students, children…and so on. We will have to live here together and work together, same as we always have, same as we always will. There will be no politicians glad handing us and handing out apologies- they’ll leave that dirty, humbling work to us to do in the break room and around the water cooler.
I can only hope that as we head into the final weeks of this campaign, as the politicians drive Americans apart to win votes that Americans will have the integrity not to let their vote alone define who they are.
America isn’t saved by elections. America isn’t for the politicians. The bullshit expires in less than a month.
d. zomgergen
Bandit Pulpit 