Change

I attended the funeral of my great aunt yesterday. It was a bittersweet memorial for a wonderful lady. Though it is never easy to say good-bye to someone dearly held, at 91 she had lived her life well and completely. Always with a smile on her face and a kind word, a pinch for your cheek she was the last of my grandmother's generation in our family.

The rabbi noted that she had seen a tremendous amount of change during her long and full life. But gracefully, she was not afraid of new or different or change. She saw it as a part of life. "So much so," he said, "that this past November she voted for Obama."

The comment brought a smile to some of those gathered. I think we all realized that for a nice Jewish girl from Tennessee, raised in Brooklyn, who ultimately lived her life in Pennsylvania this was quite new perhaps even daring.

Somehow this little comment from the rabbi reminded me that we are indeed in the midst of a new era. Like it or not, things will never be quite the same. It is exhilarating, given mess that this country and even the world seems to be facing...things will never be quite the same.

Yesterday was also the ONE YEAR anniversary of Obama's now famous "Yes We Can" speech given after narrowly losing the New Hampshire primary. In part, he said:

We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember that, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

... For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Many people live their lives with this spirit...I think Aunt Lee was one of them. I hope to be one too.

Yes We Can.