Twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t know if I wanted to blog or, at moments, even breathe again. The results of last night’s election have given me renewed hope in our country to the extent that she has fulfilled her promise of unlimited possibilities to the least of these. President Obama cannot walk on water, but he can give my children hope that one day they can. That moment at 11p, last night was a definite win to inspire the American electorate and to begin to restore our image abroad with an act that could only have happened in America. Africans were spread all over the globe with the slave trade, but only in America has a Black man ever been elected to run a country once marred by the historical atrocities of that most peculiar institution called slavery. For all its liberality, Europe does not lay hold to that claim. For that, I am grateful and uncharacteristically proud to be an American.
The win inspires me in two ways, the aforementioned and in prompting me to go on. Yesterday we elected our first African-American president in MY lifetime, and the day before that I laid my father to rest. The past 10 days have been extremely difficult, but God is faithful and He is just. He has given me so much in my dad that I just cannot complain. My dad fought with all his heart to prepare me and not to leave me, but ultimately, he chose to rest with his dignity rather than live with a dire infirmity. Yet, in all of that, I know that God has been good to him and to me. Perhaps I will one day share our final days together; perhaps I will not. But what I know for sure is that my dad cast his vote for President Obama and had unshakeable faith that he would win, so I am encouraged and inspired that as my dad lived his life and inspired so many others, so must I live and do the same with my life. My dad gave me hope to believe in so many things, especially myself, and that is a gift I want to give to someone else.
Here’s to my DADDY…
Be blessed.