thank you, saint jude

last night, amid the celebration, I spoke to my dear friend and old housemate. she is full of light and radical imagination, she is brilliant and always finds beauty within broken spirits and hope within despair. she is real, too, and has long since exchanged her rose colored glasses for naked eyes and open arms. I turned to her, because I did not know how to feel. I was sorely tempted to be swept up in the mob of excitement and joy, but I am also a cynic. I won't believe it until he's inaugurated.

she said to me: "I need this tonight. I need joy and hope, because tomorrow is when the real work begins. I need this tonight."

it was truly a beautiful night. the air was balmy, there were champagne bottles and fireworks. it felt like the new year. I imagine that in some ways it is. we have a black president. we have a black president!

but I was disappointed and not surprised when, this morning, the new york times named this the destruction of "the last racial barrier." I don't have the energy tonight to discuss how utterly false that is.

saint jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes. i'm not catholic. but there you go.