We Are One

I love living in America. I also love living in Washington, DC. (On non-working, non-rush hour days anyway!). I took the metro into the city today with Theresa and Frauke for the "We Are One" Inaugural concert for Barack Obama at the Lincoln Memorial. It was the experience of a lifetime, and one I won't soon forget.

The opportunity to stand on the mall, shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of thousands of my closest friends and be inspired by both the words and music of performers from around the world was electrifying. I can't adequately put it into words. The mere fact that there were so many people in once place and that everyone was polite and courteous was a monumental feat in and of itself. Obama has inspired people across the globe of all races and nationalities to join together and rise up to meet the daunting challenges ahead, and it was clear on the mall today that we were all there because we were all in some way inspired by our President-Elect. There were repeated chants of "O-bam-a...O-bam-a." I had to laugh when the opening speaker asked us to remember that Obama "is a human being, not the Messiah." But in the hearts of those there today, he has Messiah status for sure.



The performers were awesome. It was a rare opportunity to see performers together that likely never share the same stage, let alone the same song, but in the spirit of the event, they came together as one for some thrilling renditions of favorite tunes such as One Love, Lean on Me, The Rising, Shower The People, American Pie, Shout, We Shall Be Free, Pink Houses, In the Name of Love, This Land is Your Land, and many others. I really just cannot explain the experience. I feel like I was part of something magical, and just maybe caught a glimpse of what the 1963 March on Washington or Woodstock (minus the pot and the sex) were like. This year has seen the country come together, united behind arguably the most inspiring President-Elect ever, and at moments today, I was nearly moved to tears. I wish my dad was alive to see it. I think he'd be inspired too (even though Gloria Estefan was not among the performers). On our way back to the metro, Theresa and I did celebratory cartwheels on the mall - a tradition that started years ago at a 3rd of July concert. What an incredible day.