LEFT BEHIND

Do you remember the feeling of being at a parade after the parade has passed?  How about the feeling on Christmas day after all the packages are unwrapped and the dinner has been consumed.  It is an empty feeling, a feeling that it was great while it lasted but did I miss something. A feeling somewhere inside, I cannot quite describe where, that tugs at your stomach and feels like I ate too much but I didn't.   The feeling that while the parade was passing I was terribly excited but I missed something, what was I looking for that did not go by?  What was I expecting at Christmas but did not get?  It is not exactly sorrow, it certainly is not anger and it is not really depression though it feels like it a lot.  It is a mix of joy sadness, exuberance and melancholy, of hope and frustration.

I am grateful that after 40 years my generation had some small part to play in the election of a person of color.  After 40 years of riding the money train we hopped off long enough to remember why we are here and took action.  There is, as there should be, great joy in this nation.  We are about to embark on a journey that was somehow interrupted back in 1963 and in 1968.  Finally, praise God, we are back on task.

That being said there is still that awful feeling.  Our LGBT friends had there hopes and dreams smashed -- once again.  Here in California apparently one can vote for some to be free but not all.  We have not yet got the message that as long as one person, one group of people, one class of people suffers oppression none of us is free.  

I love what we as a country have done.  The parade was extra special this time.  My birthday party was fun but I am still missing something.  We are missing our LGBT brothers and sisters standing side by side with us as the parade passes.  We forgot to invite our LGBT brothers and sisters to our birthday party.  There is much work to be done.