All That You Heard That It Was

January 22nd, 2009 | By Kelly Hayes-Raitt | No Comments »

I’ve never played an instrument, but I imagine performing in a world class orchestra might be similar to the feeling of being in the crowd at the Mall on the morning of Pres. Obama’s Inauguration. It was nothing I’ve ever experienced and I’m still having trouble defining the feeling of being part of something larger than the sum of its parts. The feeling of being part of something more grand and more noble than I could possibly experience alone. The feeling of an electricity that charged me and everyone around me to be better, kinder, taller. The feeling that connected me to humanity and made me want to be connected.

The crowds were crushing, as you’ve heard, the weather was biting, the chaos was, well, chaotic. But I will never forget the feeling of being exalted, as I imagine musicians must feel when their orchestra crescendos, time after time during the small encounters with people who had come from all over America to be part of America.

Maybe this is what soldiers feel – that sense of being a small part of something so much larger than you could ever have imagined, of having pride well in your chest until you surprise yourself by being near tears.

Then, of course, there was the drag of the pure logistics: It was really friggin cold, (more…)