Inauguration Thoughts

Like most of you, I spent most of this morning and afternoon watching our 44th President officially take office. I also got a haircut, but that's not really relevant I guess. Obviously, it's a tremendously momentous day, and I just have a few thoughts to share.

Electing a president, even one as potentially transformative as Obama, can't and won't solve all the problems facing our country, and our world. He can help, he can facilitate, but as he's said time and time again, we all have to do our part.

And it was in this way that I've found myself the most moved. Most of you reading this are approximately my age, and I think it's fair to say that we've grown up in profoundly selfish and individualistic times. The products, the services, the entertainment that we consume has been aimed at a smaller and smaller target audience. There remain precious little common ground to unite even the people I share an apartment building with, let alone a city, a state, a country, or a world.

Individualism is in many ways a wonderful thing to encourage: of course we should want to be our own person. However, it has come to excuse the previously mentioned selfishness, our unwillingness to give of ourselves, of our time, of our hearts. I'm as guilty of this as anyone else; many, many times I've chosen to indulge myself instead of others. Individualism too has caused us to forget how many things there are that should unite us, because people are fundamentally similar in what they want: love, companionship, a life of peace and security, and a sense of purpose.

It is in this drive towards individualism that we have lost so many of the things that make us truly happy: a connection to our families, a community with which we engage and share, a national direction we believe in, and an understanding of our connection with and responsibility to not just the rest of the human world, but the rest of the community of life.

This experiment of ours, not just America but the very idea of a global civilization, of sentience as a whole, can not long sustain itself as a collection of individuals. We must recognize and embrace the fact that by joining together into a community, we may give up certain material things, but we gain so much more that is real and truly meaningful.

To this end, I went to my local middle school today to volunteer my services as a tutor. Whatever it is you can offer, I encourage you to do the same. For those of you who already do, I commend you. Change is not something that will happen to those who sit back and wait for it. It requires a new way of thinking about ourselves, and a willingness to make the world around us a better place through our energy and our love.