And Life Goes On...

Yesterday was momentous. I hope to take some time today to really write down my thoughts more cogently.

Monday was momentous in a different way. My 90 year old grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep early Monday morning. He had been in extreme pain for about a month (the level of pain prior to that is hard to discern), but was lucid nearly to the end. When he finally decided he had fought long and hard enough, and he let go, he found peace. He was an amazing man, and my last living grandparent. I will miss him, and miss sharing more of my life's adventures with him. It's been hard not to be there to help my dad and aunts and uncle sort through things, but simultaneously it has been nice to not be swamped in it, and to be able to attend to all the issues and energy of beginning a semester.

I actually still haven't really "taught" my theatre history of the Americas class--which meets from 9:30 to 10:45. In this time zone, that was pretty much exactly the length of the inauguration ceremony and speech. I appreciated their accommodation of my schedule. So we watched it in my class as a study of the performance of American Identity. Right.

It was pretty amazing to watch with so many first-time voters, with so many that had never watched an inauguration before. Granted, I hadn't watched the last couple, but I remember watching Clinton's--and actually, I remember Reagan's second one, too. My students were shocked by how much of the arts were represented, by Aretha, by probably the most fabulous quartet possible, by poetry....it should be an interesting discussion on Thursday.

It was also pretty amazing that one of my colleagues brought her scene painting class to join mine. It was great to experiences with the students--but I didn't realize how much more momentous it was to share with someone around my age, who had a similar understanding of the politics of the last two decades. I think we both appreciated the fact that Obama's speech acknowledged the work ahead (which oddly enough made the budget meeting I had later that afternoon much less depressing).

I need to carve out some time to write about this more, to acknowledge the history, to consolidate my friends' experiences...but for now, I have my own hard work to do.