And weirdly, I just put up a climbing route in my friend's gym a couple weeks ago and called it Mellow Yellow. Hmmm...

Rife with symbolism? Or possibly not.

Just chiming in way late to say that even though I personally am all about the Jesus, ITA with java. Warren just made me grind my teeth on behalf of java and tommy and beth b and her very DH and ND and Daisy Jane and, well, all the firm and passionate unbelievers I know who are such excellent humans that I feel privileged to know them.

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. And instead of ranting, I'm going to post the Inauguration prayer from Clinton's second Inauguration:

President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, Vice President Gore, Mrs. Gore. I'm going to ask that we all bow our heads in prayer.

Our Father and our God, we thank You today for the privilege of coming into Your presence on this historic and solemn occasion.

We thank You for Your gracious hand which has preserved us as a nation. We praise You for the peaceful continuity of government that this Inauguration represents.

We recall that the Bible says, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it" (Psalm 127: 1, KJV). You also said that to whom much has been given, much shall be required.

We look gratefully to the past, and thank You that from the very foundations of America You granted our forefathers courage and wisdom, as they trusted in You. So we ask today that You would inspire us by their example; where there has been failure, forgive us; where there has been progress, confirm; where there has been success, give us humility; and teach us to follow Your instructions more closely as we enter the next century.

Give to all those to whom You have entrusted leadership today a desire to seek Your will and to do it.

So today we ask Your blessing on President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, and their daughter, Chelsea; and upon Vice President Gore and his wife, Tipper, and their children.

Give to all our leaders the vision of what You desire America to become, and the wisdom to accomplish it, and the strength to cross the bridges into the 21st Century.

We pray also for the members of the House and the Senate; for the Supreme Court; and for all who bear responsibility of leadership in this nation which is blessed with such ethnic diversity.

We have not solved all the social problems of our time, such as drugs and racism. Technology and social engineering have not solved the basic problems of human greed, pride, intolerance, and selfishness. We need Your insight, we need Your compassion, we need Your strength.

As both President Clinton and Senator Dole urged us in the recent presidential campaign, may this be a time of coming together to help us deal with the problems we face. O Lord, help us to be reconciled first to you and secondly to each other. May Dr. Martin Luther King's dream finally come true for all of us. Help us to learn our courtesy to our fellow countryman that comes from the One who taught us that "whatever you want me to do to you, do also to them."

Remind us today that You have shown us what is good, and what You require of us: To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

We ask that as a people we may humble ourselves before You, and seek Your will for our lives and for this great nation. Help us in our nation to work as never before to strengthen our families, and to give our children hope and a moral foundation for the future.

So may our desire be to serve You, and in so doing, serve one another. This we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

That was Billy Graham. I would like to point out that Billy Graham is far more conservative than Warren, despite the fact that many here have expressed that he is on the "fringe." He's not. And if he is, I am. And I think you've all known me long enough to know that while I started my life on the fringe, I'm far from it now.

Granted, I don't agree with everything Warren says or believes, but I also don't agree with everything everyone here says or believes. I think that's important to remember on occasion.

So, it's ok to invoke racism at the Inauguration, but not Jesus?

Hee.

I guess I'd better make it my imperative to be mellow for the next four years. Y'all can call me on that.

Hey, I strongly disliked Billy Graham too!

The Washington Post had an article with speculation about whether Warren would say "in Jesus' name," with some history of the past 30 years or so of which invocations said it and which didn't, and most did.

So, it's ok to invoke racism at the Inauguration

I don't think anyone was saying that.

Warren was way too Jesusy for me, especially at the start, but otherwise not too bad. Though he weirded me out when he was talking about "committing [the Obamas] to your care, lord" because isn't that what you say at funerals?

It's a good day to be a godless heathen in America!

Bless. That whole speech was fucking incredible.

I got really teary when Lowry started in with Lift Every Voice. I'm glad it was pulled in, even if not sung. His speech was a pretty amazing pastiche of gospel songs, scripture, iconic speeches. Love.

Hey, I strongly disliked Billy Graham too!

Um, yeah. This.

Though he weirded me out when he was talking about "committing [the Obamas] to your care, lord" because isn't that what you say at funerals?

Oh, I'm SO glad I wasn't the only one to catch that! That creeped me WAY out.

Oh, I'm so moved and so happy and so hopeful. What a wonderful feeling! We watched it as a school, and it was fantastic to hear the girls cheering (and making snide comments when Warren took the podium, which I pretended to shush but was secretly amused by). I have so many things I want to say about the speech and the music and everything that I don't even know where to begin. So a few of my first thoughts-

-Regarding Aretha's hat: The reason NPR referred to it as a crown is because of the tradition (especially in the south, but all over the US) of African American women and their church hats. A wonderful book about this tradition came out in in 2000 called Crowns, and the book has been adapted to a musical (which I saw and loved):

Countless black women would rather attend church naked than hatless. For these women, a church hat, flamboyant as it may be, is no mere fashion accessory; it's a cherished African American custom, one observed with boundless passion by black women of various religious denominations. A woman's hat speaks long before its wearer utters a word. It's what Deirdre Guion calls "hattitude...there's a little more strut in your carriage when you wear a nice hat. There's something special about you." If a hat says a lot about a person, it says even more about a people-the customs they observe, the symbols they prize, and the fashions they fancy.

Photographer Michael Cunningham beautifully captures the self-expressions of women of all ages-from young glamorous women to serene but stylish grandmothers. Award-winning journalist Craig Marberry provides an intimate look at the women and their lives. Together they've captured a captivating custom, this wearing of church hats, a peculiar convergence of faith and fashion that keeps the Sabbath both holy and glamorous.

In that tradition, Aretha's hat struck me as a gorgeous salute to African American heritage and, as always, Aretha's personal "hattitude."

-The speech itself--so many things to say, but I want to start by echoing Jessica's sentiment that it is so nice to be included as a real American, even though I am agnostic. Go Obama! The rest of my thoughts will have to wait until I can collect them into some semblance of order.

-I am totally in love with the First Family.

-The quartet of superstars playing the new arrangement of part of Copland's "Appalachia Springs" blew me away. What a perfect choice for source material, and what an amazing new interpretation of it. I've sung the original folk song Copland wove in ("Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free, tis a gift to come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in a place just right, it will be in the valley of love and delight") and the full orchestration of Copland's symphony, so it meant a lot to me personally. Plus...seriously, could you get four more talented musicians? Wow.

Okay, that's all for now--must somehow now go teach. Happy, happy, joy, joy!