The People's Inauguration

Today, a little less than a week from the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, I am reading about The People’s Inauguration. The website opens with the following statement: 

Only we can bring our communities together, tend our wounds, and begin the labor of reckoning, reimagining and remaking our nation block-by-block, heart-to-heart.

“Block-by-block, heart-to-heart” sounds like neighboring to me. It is both a relief and a challenge to remember that WE have power as individuals, as neighbors, to bring people together. The small things that we do on our block, connecting our hearts with our literal neighbors, matter. Sometimes neighboring is easy and fun. Sometimes it is hard. Sometimes it is a very deliberate choice, certainly a choice that matters.

The day after the presidential inauguration, we are invited to participate in The People’s Inauguration. The website provides an oath for each of us to take as a way of setting an intention. It is based on the presidential oath from the U.S. Constitution.
Presidential Oath of Office
”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute
the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my Ability,
preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution of the United States.”

The People’s Oath
”I, (insert name),
do solemnly vow that I will faithfully execute my role
in healing, reimagining, and rebuilding our country,
and will to the best of my ability,
preserve, protect, and defend
dignity, justice, and joy
for myself and for all around me,
and that I will do so with love.”

The task that we are committing to, if we take the oath, seems simple and yet difficult. It is an honor to get to be the healers, the reimaginers, the rebuilders. I am confident that we have the capacity, the gifts, the skills to be those things and to do that work for the benefit of ourselves and our neighbors.