GESENHUES: A ceremony worth celebrating

Columns

Related Photos

Discussion

January 20, 2009

By AMY GESENHUES The News and Tribune Tue Jan 20, 2009, 06:30 PM EST

My daughter turned 5 this week. We had a series of parties for her.

The first scheduled celebration was at her school. No presents, just a happy birthday song after lunch and cupcakes we baked with pink icing and sprinkles. Then there was the private family affair that included me, her dad, her little brother and her aunt and uncle. We took her out to eat at the restaurant of her choice and she got to open gifts.

The big finale celebration was an afternoon with four of her best friends at a local museum followed by pizza and birthday cake at CiCi’s.

I explained to her that 5 was a big birthday, “Five year olds get to go to school and they learn how to read. And they sleep in their own beds all through the night every night.”

She was excited about the school thing, but looked a little skeptical with the sleeping in her own bed thing. It was a milestone birthday and cause for celebration and ceremony.

Ceremonies are important. They are the reason we wear robes and flat hats when we graduate and why we spend more on our weddings than on our automobiles. Whether we are turning 5 or 50, ceremonies are meant to mark occasions and our psyches. They are the metaphorical portals that represent momentous entrances and exits in our lives. When we fail to create a ceremony around important events, we lose sight of their significance.

I know someone who is not happy about the amount of money and effort being put toward this week’s presidential inauguration. The argument is that we should not splurge on such an event when our nation’s economy is tanking.

Of course, a large majority of the inauguration costs are funded by donations. There is not a lot being paid by our tax dollars. The estimates of more than $45 million being spent on the inauguration are still staggering regardless of where the money is coming from.

Here’s my question: Has there ever been a more significant occasion to mark in our nation’s presidential election history than this year’s inauguration? Maybe our very first presidential inauguration; but since then, all other historic presidential events have happened proceeding the inaugurations, not because of it.

In 1865, our nation abolished slavery with the 13th amendment to our Constitution. Almost 150 years later, we have witnessed the first African-American president to be elected into office. It’s been a long and difficult journey, but if ever there was a milestone in our history, this is it.

I believe that the price tag for this year’s inauguration is worth every penny even if it isn’t a bargain event. It is time we show the world that we are ready to usher in a more reputable, more noble national reputation. We have matured as a nation and our voting record stands as evidence.

It is also time that we stop deliberating on all that is going poorly — poor being the intended pun — and celebrate a new turn in our history. While the pomp and circumstance may be considered grandiose, the need for ceremony and celebration is exorbitant. This is an occasion to be marked in our collective conscious.

As far as ceremonies go and the metaphorical importance of the celebration, this is the whole shebang when it comes to presidential inaugurations. We won’t have the opportunity to celebrate such a significant event until 2016, when we celebrate Hillary Clinton as our first female president.

Next year, my daughter will be 6 and we will probably limit the number of parties in her honor for her next birthday; maybe one party with everybody instead of a string of parties with different groups.

There’s a chance it will not be a memorable as this year when she got to meet Zac and Wheezie of “Dragon Tales” fame at the museum and then feast on endless plates of pizza.

But, like I told her, 5 is a big birthday. It’s the start of a new time in her life. She’s older now, more mature — a big girl.

I feel the same way about our country and never have I wanted to celebrate it more than I do this week.

Amy Gesenhues is a freelance writer who lives in Floyd County. You can read her daily commentaries at www.AmyWroteIt.Wordpress.comE-mail her directly at amy@amywroteit.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Columns

CLERE: Walkout is absurd
The walkout by Indiana House Democrats entered its third week yesterday as tensions continued to rise and misinformation proliferated.

March 7, 2011 1 Photo
LADD: New Albany has new energy
New Albany is evolving. Public art has become more prevalent in the downtown, drawing more locals and outside visitors to our community; bringing more publicity.

March 7, 2011 1 Photo
NASH: We have to share the road
They are very predictable and almost every one of them say the same thing. They throw around words like “menace” and claim that the roads were meant for automobiles. It is always the same argument that bicycle riders don’t pay taxes and should be registered and be forced to get insurance just like cars.

February 3, 2012 1 Photo
STAWAR: Our family strategic plan
Objective 1: Consult tax professional to determine if contributions to job-seeking son, who has a college degree in fine arts, constitutes a charitable deduction (like supporting The Fund for the Arts).

February 3, 2012 1 Photo
HARBESON: Recycling: Will it ever stop coming around?
Is the Clark County mandatory recycling program finally against the ropes?
I hope so because I really don’t want to write yet another sequel to this sordid tale that would surely smell worse than Rocky’s armpits.

February 2, 2012 1 Photo
RESCHKE: Don’t forget about our old buddies SOPA and PIPA
If you think the government or a corporation or anyone, really, won’t try to construe laws to meet their own personal needs regardless of the original intent of the law, then I’ve got some ocean-front property in Arizona to sell you.

January 31, 2012 1 Photo
HOWEY: Bauer leading Democrats from disaster to catastrophe
Had Bauer kept caucus losses to 55 seats, instead of 60, right-to-work probably wouldn’t have happened.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
CUMMINS: Keep politics out of the Super Bowl
Before you jump to conclusions, I believe in capitalism, free trade and jobs, but am not supportive of Ponzi schemes, Wall Street criminals or sex traffic on any street. And I do not condone corporations giving large sums to politicians, who prostitute themselves in order to pay back the corporations. Nor do I approve of a presidential candidate with income of nearly $57,000 per day, paying only a 14 percent tax rate.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
DODD: A school board in turmoil
January 29, 2012 1 Photo
CHEERS AND JEERS — For Jan. 28-29
January 28, 2012
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

GESENHUES: A ceremony worth celebrating

Site Map

Contact Us