First Wobbly Steps
I have chosen to begin this blog journey with what I expect will ultimately become a “where were you when you heard” moments that presented itself yesterday. This will first require me to add a little context as I have already touched on this type of an event in some previous writings that are just as relevant today as the day I wrote them.
I wrote and self-published a book titled Weird Wild Stuff a few years ago (available on Amazon😊). The content and format of this book could be even seen as my primitive blog as it contains my observations on everyday life as if you are reading my personal journal. I wrote about these where were you type of events in one of those observations which I will repeat below:
The nature of history is such that these questions often become generational. For my parents, the questions were “Where were you when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon?” and “Where were you when you heard that Kennedy had been shot?” For my generation, the question had been “Where were you when the Challenger exploded?” until the events of September 11, 2001; however, this question seemed so hauntingly familiar today as I learned of the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia.
As you can surmise from this paragraph, this entry was written on the day we learned that the Columbia space shuttle and crew were tragically lost upon returning from a mission. I felt this event was a candidate for another defining moment in no small part because I had already experienced an eerily similar experience while growing up with the loss of the Challenger space shuttle. There are degrees of magnitude for these type of events as someone who didn’t live through and experience both space shuttle tragedies may not have the same level of connection that an event like landing on the moon or September 11 happening as a single event so there is a personal component to these events as well.
There is one event that happened yesterday that for most Americans I feel will become one of these moments. After several days of states counting a record number of votes cast in a Presidential election, we now know that Joe Biden will be our next President. I heard this news more specifically and personally while I was out bird watching with a good friend of mine. We appropriately had just spotted a bald eagle which was the first time I have seen one in the wild soaring majestically against the clear blue sky. It was almost as if this was a sign that America will find a way to get through this. I’m going to take it that way.
