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The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I cannot go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
--Theodore Roethke
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Joy's Updates - Straight from the Horse's Mouth.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Sounds Like Me
I used to say I was the average American but now know I'm the average Democrat. Janey sent me this article. I'm not sure the link will work, so I'm going to post it here. This is SO ME!! This link is so Molly Ivins!
Op-Ed Columnist: Keeping the Faith
January 20, 2004
By DAVID BROOKS
DES MOINES
At the Iowa caucus I attended, one of John Edwards's people went over to the Kucinich supporters and said if they came over and joined Edwards, they wouldn't have to be vegans anymore. Everybody laughed, and the debate continued. The Dean people played up the war issue; the Kerry people, electability. But eventually, most of the Kucinich folks went over to Edwards, and a great cheer rose up from that side of the room.
The whole exchange was conducted in a spirit of ribbing and good cheer, and it was apparently typical of what happened across the state.
We've learned a lot about the Democratic Party over the past few weeks, culminating with the astounding Kerry and Edwards victories last night. We've learned that the Democratic Party is no longer primarily the party of union guys who want to restrict trade. We've learned that most Democrats are not really furious at "Washington Democrats." They desperately want to remove Bush, but they are not haters. They're not out to punish everybody who voted for the Iraq war resolution.
Instead, if you had to pick a quintessential figure to represent the Iowa Democratic voters who have been showing up at rallies over the past few days, it would be a 55-year-old teacher. She is a moderate, optimistic, progressive educator who wants to believe in politics again. She wants to believe that big changes can still be made in this country, and that big challenges like poverty and the uninsured can still be addressed.
She has some pet peeves. She is upset by the billions of dollars the drug companies spend on commercials, which drive up the cost of her prescriptions. She loathes the No Child Left Behind Act, which threatens to brand her school a failure, even though she and her colleagues are doing the best they can.
But it's the dream of big, history-shaking changes that really inspires her. She wants to talk about the issues that used to be so prominent but now seem never to get attention: urban blight, segregation and the misery caused by hunger and homelessness.
She remembers having faith in that kind of heroic politics when she was young. Conservatives sometimes say that Democrats want to go back to the 1960's of Woodstock and the peace movement. That's not quite right. The quintessential Democrat here doesn't want to return to the angry, disruptive long-hair style of the late 1960's. She wants to return to the confident, pre-counterculture short-hair mood of the early 1960's.
She remembers John F. Kennedy, the personification of the optimism she longs to recover. She remembers neatly dressed idealists infused with a sense of possibility. She's not hostile, as the late 60's/early 70's leftists often were, to the authoritative institutions of American life. Back in 1972, Mark Shields, then a political consultant, advised George McGovern to play up his bomber pilot heroism in World War II. The campaign rejected that advice, fearing it would offend the Democratic base. But now the Democratic Party loves the idea of being led by a war hero.
The other thing about our 55-year-old teacher is that she has been disappointed so many times. The period of Kennedyesque hope was followed by the 1970's, then Reagan and two decades of Republican ascendance. Bill Clinton offered to rekindle her hopes but squandered it all so needlessly.
Like one who has loved ardently but not well, she is now wary about committing to a politician. At first she liked Dean because he offered to bring power back to the people who deserve to have it. But she's had second thoughts because Dean isn't the sort of kind and respectful student she wants in her classroom. She likes the way Edwards talks about visions of new possibilities for America, but without Dean's undertone of menace. She likes Kerry's steady earnestness and is intrigued by Clark.
Most of all, she is cautious and flexible. She wants to be sure that This Is The Guy before she gives her heart away one more time. After a year of being courted, most Iowa voters were still open to switching candidates even on caucus day.
I'm struck by how oblivious this campaign has been to the consequences of 9/11. I'm struck by how the grand idealism of the crowds is out of proportion to the smallish policies on offer. Nonetheless, it's sort of inspiring in this cold Iowa winter to see at least some Americans who have preserved, despite decades of discouragement, a stubborn faith in politics, and the possibility of change.
6:49:00 PM
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