What Now

What now? Well on Tuesday it was time to start shaving again. I hadn’t shaved in almost 2 weeks. I wish I could have said it was because I was doing it for some noble cause like not shaving again until there was a black man in the White House because legally there still isn’t and I would have fallen short. No, I just didn’t feel like it. And even though I was starting to get that ‘final contestant waiting for the merge Survivor look', I really wasn’t going for that. On me that’s really not a pretty look anyway.

If I could grow a beard like how Teddy Pendergrass grew a beard, real thick, luscious and masculine looking, I might really go for it. But I can’t. It’s not that it grows in patches like I’ve seen on others, but it does grow in kind of thin looking. I guess just the same way it must have grown in for Old Mr. Chin my great grand-father and his family.

Since Tuesday I’ve been trying to say something about the recent election victory by Barack Obama other than I shaved but I couldn’t think of anything. Everything has already been said or written about by everyone else. Historic recognitions, praises, congratulations and jubilations have all been put down on paper, on the net and by word of mouth. What more can I say? I’m sure there is something but I think it would take someone with a better mind and more organized than me to find it.

If I were religious and active in the church that I say I belong to I would insist on us having a sermon of thanksgiving. I would find a way of honoring what happened this week, but I’m not. I remember a story that Jonathan Winters said once when he was coming back from the war, Korea or WWII. He was marching in a parade down his town’s main street and he saw his mother in the crowd of onlookers. He broke ranks and ran over to her full of happiness and glee and said, “Ma, Ma, I’m home. I made it back alright.” And she looked at him and being an Episcopalian like I am nodded and said, “I see ya.” So maybe that is what I will say, “I see you Mr. President-Elect.” But then I would ask, “What now?”

I would hope that he says that he intends to carry out his campaign promises. I don’t know them all, but I would want the troops brought back as soon as possible both from Iraq and Afghanistan, even though I know Afghanistan wasn’t part of the deal. I would hope that he would insist on creating or starting a dialogue with Chavez, Assad and other leaders we have problems with, even the Castro Brothers. I never have understood what has been gained by boycotting Cuba since the Kennedy administration. Maybe that can change too. I would also hope that the healthcare for all plan that he said he would develop, really does come into fruition. And I would hope that we really do develop alternative energy fuels and that we do start to fight against global warming.

So, what now?