The Olympics: Hopefully Saving Us From Beyonce, The Mummy and John Edwards

I wasn't super excited about the Olympics till I started watching tonight's Opening Ceremonies. Zhang Yimou did a fabulous job putting it together. Reminds me why I never skip one of his films. Plus, it's so great to watch the Parade of the Nations, which is still going on as I type. How fab it is seeing everybody all decked out in their costumes, looking all harmonious. Other than Turkmenistan seriously having the worst outfits ever (they were puke green suits) it makes me happy to see the world at it's best, all the beautiful diversity that exists and that we should value and celebrate every single day. Besides, all the feel-gooding of the Parade of Nations helps me forget about some of the things that happened in the last couple of days that show us not at our best.

I mean, the Beyonce/Feria hair color drama... L'Oreal says they didn't doctor her photo to make her skin lighter. Well, I think somebody did something and it wouldn't be the first time. But regardless, um, folks get all outraged over the skin tone but not over the fact that she's obviously wearing a blond wig or a weave and pretty much has for the past million years! Please, like she uses Feria on her own hair! Whatever! If her stylist is coloring anything, they're coloring her lacefront wig. We don't even know what her real hair looks like!

And what's really fascinating to me is reading comments on other blogs about the whole deal. Folks either try to rationalize it by arguing that ALL photos are doctored, it's just the industry, so this is not a big deal. Or they try to say that her lightened appearance is really the way she looks because of her Creole heritage. The typical comment is, "Have you seen her mom? Her mom is almost white!" Well, I've seen Bey's mom (and her daddy too), live and in person right in front of me. I didn't think Momma Knowles looked white but I did think she looked mean and her lipstick was too harsh and too red.

Oh, and then there's also the theories about how Beyonce has been progressively getting lighter like Michael Jackson did, like she's soaking herself in bleach every other night or something. Who knows. However it went down, let's face it, are the folks who are up in arms gonna boycott L'Oreal till they hire a slew of black models that don't have to wear wigs or get their photos digitally lightened up?

Crickets are chirping, folks.

And sigh, John Edwards. I can't say I'm surprised that the dirt is true because the minute I heard about the possibility of his infidelity back in January, and then he dropped out of the race all abruptly, I figured there was definitely more fire than smoke there. Can you imagine what this drama would be like if he'd actually won the nomination?

I guess he figured plenty of other adulterers have been elected or cheated in office, so what's the big deal? And besides, this election season who'd we have running? We had a divorced guy (Guiliani), a Mormon (Romney), a woman (Clinton), a black man (Obama) and a mummy (McCain) all in the same year! So maybe Edwards figured that if it came out, folks would say, "Who cares! At least he's a white man who's Christian and has both feet out of the grave."

Speaking of the Mummy, here's one of those dumb McCain ads on the TV right now. It's asking us about Obama, "Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?" Ugh! McCain, it's sooo not classy! Going negative like this, especially when we all know you have EIGHT houses, well, it looks especially bad in the midst of all the feel-good, we-are-the-worlding that's going on during these Opening Ceremonies.

Anyway, enough of the Mummy and back to Mr. "I didn't love the woman I cheated with and I am NOT the father!" Yeah, I know Edwards denied being the baby daddy because the "timing" of the affair doesn't match up with when the baby was born. However, I would have much preferred if homie-love-affair had said, "I know I'm not the father because I believe in protecting my health and the health of my wife and so I wore a condom every time I had sex with my mistress." But nope, he'd never say that. I'm just wondering, how can you run for President, try to convince us that you can rule the Free World, but um, you don't know how to keep it in your pants or put on a rubber?

And now that I feel all high-schoolish because I just typed out the word "rubber", I can't believe it's almost 11:00 and we are only 175 countries into this Parade of Nations. I don't think I'm going to make it till the end. Sigh, we haven't even seen the Chinese delegation of athletes yet. But I saw the U.S.A. and Ireland so I've got my heritage covered, as far as I know. Wish I knew what African countries my slave ancestors are from so I could cheer for them especially. Instead, I cheer for all the West African countries extra hard. I gotta cover it all, you know.

On that note, time for bed! I have to get up in the morning to go to week two of my long run for my LA Marathon training. Last Friday night I stayed up till almost 4 AM and then got up at 6 AM. Not a good idea to go running on two hours of sleep. And how perfect, the Italians and the Senegalese are strolling. Just what I need, a little bit of eye-candy before bed. Do both countries have the hottest guys or what? Now I'm sure to sleep well and have good dreams!

In the spirit of the Olympics, Citius, Altius, Fortius to each of you!

Barack Obama Made Me Cry

I've been crying. Whenever I cry I get a really bad headache. But this headache is absolutely worth it, and gosh, there's a reason Tylenol exists in the world.

I think I may need that Tylenol to be extra strength because I'd willingly cry some more.

Unless you live under a rock or have been in a coma, you know that Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus tonight.

It is a watershed moment in this nation's history to have a black man win the Iowa caucus. That goes without saying and I know that's some of why I cried. After all, I was not yet born when former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ran for president and in my lifetime, I've seen Rev. Jesse Jackson run. I've seen former Senator Carol Moseley Braun run. I've seen Rev. Al Sharpton run.

And, well, you couldn't have paid me to vote for Al Sharpton if it had come to that. So it's not just pride in seeing someone of African descent win...in a state that's almost 95% white no less.

It's more than that.

Did you see Obama's victory speech? It was one of the most moving things I've heard in a minute. I wish I could find it online and embed it here but it doesn't seem to be up in it's entirety yet.

**Edit: Thanks to commenter Arrowhead Addict, here's the speech:



Seriously, the man was on fire. Not that the other candidates didn't have some good things to say, because they did. I actually sat here and watched MSNBC for a minute so I could check it all out.

But Obama's speech was the sort of speech that gave me chills from the first moment he opened his mouth. The man said, "We are one people and our time for change has come." The crowd went crazy. And I cried.

Everywhere in our world are the signs that our disunity is only killing us. We are surely one family, inextricably linked together and the call for unity of this human family...that's what resonated in people's hearts. It makes sense and whether Obama wins or loses, this was a great night in American history.

And now I'm off to rummage for the Tylenol.

Remembering in Silence

The first time I visited New York City, I was nineteen. I was with my parents and we went around on one of those tourist buses and saw all the sights. I loved Striver's Row in Harlem and I adored Chinatown. I laughed with the rest of the bus as the tour guide loving referred to the Twin Towers as the "washer and dryer".

As my family left NYC for the D.C. area, I watched that washer and dryer from the back window of our car. I watched till the buildings disappeared from view. I promised myself then and there that I was going to move to New York one day and come back for a visit.

I kept my promise and moved to New York six years later. I remember thinking back then how architecturally inferior the Twin Towers were to 99% of the buildings in the Chicago Loop. But there was something captivating about them, something beautiful that drew me there. I liked to go over to the buildings, stand at the bottom and just stare up, particularly at night. It made me a bit dizzy but I got a kick out of doing that.

I only went once to the observation deck of Two World Trade Center. I'll never forget the feel of the breeze on my face as I gazed out over New York City.

That September morning six years ago, I got up around 5:00. I took a shower, got dressed, made my lunch and got my stuff ready to go to work. I got my almost nine month-old baby up, changed him and dressed him. I remember sitting on the couch to nurse him and I flipped to the local news stations to see what was happening in the world.

I was just shocked by what I was seeing. I couldn't believe a plane had crashed into one of the towers. I figured one of the pilots must have had a heart attack or been drunk. I had no sense of possibility that anyone would survive such a horrible fire. I remember thinking that there was no way for firefighters to be able to put such a huge blaze out.

I think I'd only turned on the TV a couple of minutes before the second plane hit. And when that second plane did hit...I will never forget that sick, horrible feeling.

Matt Lauer and Katie Couric stopped speculating about whether air traffic controllers had screwed up. I yelled for my husband to come out of the bathroom. I called my mother and told her to turn on the TV. Then I remembered that my friend Mikelle was flying to NYC that morning. I called her cell phone over and over again and she finally answered. Her plane was sitting on the runway at LAX waiting for takeoff. I remember telling her what was happening and screaming that she needed to get off that damn plane no matter what. Then I called my boss who told me she wanted me to come into work regardless.

She actually told me, "It's not like it's going on here in LA."

I refused to come in. I was terrified and absolutely convinced that something was going to happen in LA. I started talking to my husband about how we were going to get out of the city given LA traffic. I was really certain those were the last moments of our lives together. The world seemed out of control. Something had happened at the Pentagon, but it seemed unclear what it was. The news people seemed so calm, so controlled. I didn't understand how Tom Brokaw was managing to keep his voice so even.

And then Two World Trade Center, the building I'd once stood on top of, came down.

I still can't explain what I felt in the moments after I saw that happening. I know that I cried a lot but I don't know what I said, what I did. I do know that by the time Tower One came down, almost a half hour later, I felt numb with grief. The loss of life, the loss of the buildings...the fruits of mankind's disunity were manifesting themselves and it hurt so much.

In the hours after the collapse of the second tower, I continued to watch the news. I prayed. I talked to relatives around the country and friends here in LA. I watched my baby crawl around on the floor. He was smiling and laughing, completely oblivious to the tragedy that had taken place.

Now, six years later, that baby is now a healthy 1st grader. Sometimes he tells me he wants to be an airline pilot, but mostly, he wants to be a pediatrician.

I also think about how after the attacks George Bush told us all that we should go about our lives as usual. He told us to go shopping. Essentially, he told us to embrace the religion of materialism and shut off our brains, our hearts, our very souls.

Today as I ventured around LA, I heard lots of people talking about Britney Spears' performance on Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards. Not one person mentioned anything to me at all about today being the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. In fact, this morning, I thought out loud to a woman at my son's school. I told her I couldn't believe it's been six years and I wondered if the teachers were going to do anything special in the classrooms with the kids."

The woman asked me, "Why would they do anything special today?"

I felt simultaneously sheepish and angry as I said, "Because it's September 11th."

She merely replied, "Oh, yeah, that's right."

Earlier this evening, I found myself thinking again about that feeling of being on top of the observation deck of Two World Trade Center. None of us will ever do that again. But, about a year ago, while poking around on YouTube, I came across a promo video that Depeche Mode shot in 1990 for the song "Enjoy the Silence". They filmed it on that observation deck. It makes me cry, but it helps me remember what once was.



Truly, there is too much pain, too much lost beauty in our world.