Sarajo Frieden’s new piece

Sarajo writes:

“For me, the images of that jubilant sea of humanity in grant park beaming out to the world, after all the darkness of the past eight years, is indescribable. Finally, something to celebrate, something to be dazzled by, something to be proud of. Not all of the outcomes of Tuesday night were positive, especially here in California, and there are many challenges ahead. But I’m an eternal optimist, and what better tool to communicate that with than art.”
-sj

Update: 12:18 PM EST: Sarajo just emailed me this, and I love how she expresses the optimism I feel:

“and the blog, it’s a wonderful thing! And thanks for your comments…i felt I had to do something to channel all that emotion. And because it will be complicated and imperfect and get down to business running this country, and who knows if or even what it would be like to love a president, the way people loved FDR…i haven’t really experienced that as an adult. But that moment, election night, will always be with me/us.

But I have never been so fascinated watching a cabinet get formed, reading about every morsel of news that is coming out, economic summit today, etc. If I thought after the election I was going to slow down my appetite for all this—I was WRONG! So far anyway…i love it! It’s sooo interesting. I mean think of the current economic news, SO not good, and imagine if on top of all that McCain had been elected. I can’t imagine it and I really didn’t think it was going to happen because they were so empty and bankrupt, had nothing to offer.

But despite all the economic news, which is really just the continuation of the meltdown story, loss of consumer confidence etc, there is such a sense of hope and that is a huge ingredient I think. Yesterday I had this thought, which is that I have confidence in the new team, who seem to be governing now anyway, I have a sense of trust in letting them tackle things and try to move forward. Wow, I haven’t felt that in SO long! And I know I’m not alone in that.”
— Sarajo