standing on the banks

I once read that the streams of history are filled with the blood of martyrs and soldiers, with the loud waves of war, the boats battling upstream for progress and power and conquest. Yet, if you step away from the stream, off to the banks, you'll see the real history. True, the streams might overflow and innocent people get sucked into the stream. Yet, off in the banks you'll see parties and traditions, rites of passages, love-making, cooking, joke-telling and laughing, petty squabbles and angry gossip. Life continues even as crazy as things get in the stream.

I felt that way a little bit last night. In watching the election, I felt excited. Hopefully, NCLB will change and maybe we'll even see some immigration reform. Maybe my friend Ed won't have to worry about a third tour in Iraq. Yet, there was a gnawing sense that I was far off in the sidelines. Like a footbal game, I watched it on television - a candidate who seemed to embody the image culture, (an invisible man?) created by the convergent forces of old and new media.

Meanwhile, the boys slept. I felt a little angry with myself about eating so many yogurt-covered pretzels and failing to work-out. I somehow couldn't connect with the speech. Instead, when I saw Obama's daughters I wondered if they missed their daddy and it got me thinking about how little time I got to spend with Joel and Micah. It made me think about how quickly they'll be that old and how easy it is to serve people in one's career to the neglect of family.

Then I felt angry at Arizona for re-electing Joe the Dictator and wondered if Obama and Congress could change immigration law. I thought about my lesson plan format and the pressure for our school to make AYP and I wondered how quickly they could reform No Child Left Behind. Maybe I'm not so far from the streams after all.