It’s the day after the presidential election, and I just watched the trailer for the documentary project Seriously, directed by Gwen Gordon. It concludes with a short bit by evolutionary cosmologist Brian Swimme:
“There’s a fullness in the moment of play that can be considered the way in which the universe is expressing its own magnificence. In a moment of deep play, in a moment of deep love: that’s why the universe exists. There. Not for what it leads to, but there. That moment.”
Last night, in the two-hour-long line to vote in the federal and state elections, I saw a lot of love. I also saw some lovely play. A father and son directly in front of me played wordless games of floor tile hopping. Adults tossed free wrapped crackers back and forth, in between poignant stories of what it was like to wake up, four years ago, in a country where Barack Obama was president.
In line, we were cold, we were tired, and despite the free cookies and crackers, we were a bit hungry. But this line of voters was united by something bigger. Maybe not something as big as the entire cosmos, but at least something as big as from “sea to shining sea”: the idea of something bigger, a reality where a community organizer leads (and continues to lead) the country.
Just as I prepared to fall asleep last night, they called the election for Obama. At that moment, cheers and honking resonated all over Dorchester, from the polling place around the corner to houses where windows were audibly flung open to amplify voices. I imagined a Paul Revere-like figure moving through the streets, spreading hope in the fullness of the moment. And then I drifted off to sleep.
play(space) 