Photo Friday: Dawn

 The White House

The president awoke today receiving news that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Unlike his predecessors as CNN stated, he was selected for his "vision" and inspiring "hope" in much degenerate times.  This is the "dawn" of his call to action.     

CNN:  Obama accepts Nobel as 'call to action' President Obama said today he was "surprised and deeply humbled" to win the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments. But rather as an affirmation of American leadership.  I will accept this award as a call to action."

It's hard to believe I was just at the White House yesterday, on my very first tour ever.  My brother-in-law is a secret service agent at the White House, and has been coaxing us for years to come on a tour.  I worked in DC for 2 years, just a mile and a half away, and never went. 

Last month, my husband's favorite hockey team visited the White House, to be honored by the president for winning the Stanley Cup.  We got to shake some hands, get pictures and autographs, but never got to go inside.  The whole experience of meeting the team, even the great Mario Lemieux, seemed so unimportant as the history that surrounded me.  I could post pictures, but the experience was not moving at all.  The team did not seem happy to see their devoted fans dressed in jerseys with sharpies in hand waiting for them.  Anticipating to meet the president, they in their best suits looking like the millionaires they are, remained polite and did as requested of them.  Especially Mr. Lemieux, he took his time with everybody.

What was moving, was seeing the old sculptures along the way to the White House, of a time passed.  An old America with powdered wigged leaders on horseback thrusting swords.  Smells of the fragrant roses in the Kennedy garden, brought thoughts of his legacy of a not too distant past.  And the paintings, the incredible artwork documenting the history of the nation.  That I didn't get to see until yesterday.  I had to go back.  The White House was alive with the spirit of all that has come to pass through the magic of the artists that created them, capturing the souls of their subject.  No photograph can replicate that. 

Now is the time of great change coming to fruitation.  A leader in office who represents the kind of change that old America so desperately needed, full of positive hopes and aspirations.  I think the very idea of him and what he represents during times like these, a world faced with economic crisis, nuclear weapons and terror threats is the kind of charge we need to set things right.  So many people are already upset about his winning the Nobel prize so soon.  I can understand why, but I can also understand why it was given.  People are so quick to jump on the criticism bandwagon, and others are so plyable to listen and believe every word without searching their souls to believe it to be true.  I respect anyone who takes on the weight of the world and tries to change it for the better.  Not many people are so ready and willing to do that.  I wish for him to achive all the of the greatness, respect and admiration of his Nobel Peace Prize predessers.  How neat it is to be alive during this time in history to experience this.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."  -Gandhi