Please Don't Wake Me...

I had a dream that I woke up the day after the elections and found that America had voted for more than a president or a few proposals.  We voted for a new day and a new way.  We voted that for the first time in a long time we would take our future into our own hands and stop looking at others to do it for us.  We voted to set aside not only partisanship, but bigotry, hatred, and negative doomsday attitudes. 

I woke to a nation that got out of bed and made a conscious choice to see if their neighbor was in need before living into their own excess.  I saw elderly baking for young couples, middlers helping with home maintenance for those handicapped, and young families taking it upon themselves to stop by and visit some of the people on their block who haven’t been feeling too well.  I saw a pot of soup being carried into a divorced man’s home and a retired man under the hood of a single mom’s broken down car.  Televisions were off, hobbies were set aside, and everyone woke to a new way of being neighbor.

I rubbed my eyes briskly and there, I still saw new life.  I saw an unemployed woman offered a job with benefits and equal pay at a company that decided enough profit was enough profit, while adding another person to the payroll would simply be an investment in their future profits.  I saw a school adapt their teaching styles to more than the top third of their students and I saw administrators giving their creative, passionate teachers more leeway in their curriculum choices.  I saw mediocre students being tutored after school by some retired neighbors who needed a purpose that mattered, and I saw poor students encouraged to find their strengths, even if that meant learning techniques well outside the box.  And I saw exceptional students, even the poor ones, given ample opportunity to earn a college education as others who were already afforded one assisted with the cost. 

I also saw people who were very different than each other, sitting down for coffee in each other’s homes as they listened to each other’s views and truly heard what their once-adversary was trying to explain.  Not only Democrats with Republicans, but Native Americans with Anglo Saxons, Mexican migrant workers with CEOs, and homosexuals with religious leaders.  Everyone was learning from each other and enjoying each other’s company, while their children played together in the next room.  The next generation wouldn’t know the hate that prior generations were bred to feed on.  And I also saw people of different faith going to worship together.  Signs had been pulled up in front of churches, synagogues and temples.  They weren’t needed any longer.  Everyone knew they were sacred places of worship, and that was enough.  Divisive names were no longer needed.  In fact, after worship let out each day, the people shared their coffee hours as Jews and Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, all sat around tables and shared their worship experiences that day. 

I knew it was all too good to be true but also realized we’ve been talking about peace on earth, goodwill toward all humankind, and being a nation where liberty and justice was truly for all.  So it actually made sense.  What didn’t make sense was why it took so long for people to wake up, like I did today, and realize that I could make it happen.  I could and you could and everyone could… if we simply decided to.  So really, it wasn’t too good to be true.  It was just good enough to become a reality, if we really want it and aren’t just giving it lip service. 

I woke up today and realized that today is the first day of the rest of my life, and the life of the great nation we live in… no matter who is president or what proposals got passed.  Please tell me I am not dreaming?  Please tell me we have all had enough sliding down the slippery slope and today we have all turned a new leaf?  And if you cannot, then please, just let me sleep… I don’t’ want this dream to ever end.