Right Here, Right Now

Full disclosure, I think I initially watched this video on 120 Minutes because I thought the lead singer of Jesus Jones was cute. In fact, I recall being out and about with Suzy Gordon (ugh!) and her commenting that he looked like Jon Peterson and suggesting THAT was why I liked this song and, while I denied it at the time, I can now admit that was the hook. But, I say in my own defense, it was merely the hook. The song wouldn't have stuck with me all these years later if there wasn't something more there. (Although, I note as I look at the Wikipedia page for Jesus Jones that Mike Edwards is only 9 days younger than Fred, but a quick glance of their MySpace page shows that they probably only resemble one another in height and weight.) But none of this is why I am posting this video for y'all today.

Do you remember the eighties, back before the Berlin Wall came down? Do you remember where you were when you found out the world had changed for the better?

I was 17 when I first heard the news. And I will admit, I said something incredibly stupid, so stupid I don't even have the courage to admit it now, something so stupid that the only way I can explain it is to say that the enormity of the news was too great for my brain to accept, so I said the first thing that popped in my head, which had nothing to do with anything at all, not even my thoughts.

Alright, I'll tell you.

I remember walking into the Chittick social room and one of my roommates, Jen B. (who was the meaner of my two roommates that year, though they both kindof sucked) told me the news, that the Berlin Wall had come down, and I said, "But now David Bowie's song Heroes has no meaning."

This space has been intentionally left blank for you to absorb the enormity of my stupidity.

Eighteen and one half years later and I still can't think of that without feeling really uncomfortable in my own skin. But as I said, it was the very first thing that popped into my head.

On September 11, after the towers had fallen, but before we knew that the attacks were over, I recall saying to Maria and Jenn Starr, "Well, maybe now we will know why the Pentagon has five sides." Yeah, that was dumb too, but hey, I was in shock, as were we all.

At least I didn't say anything really awful, like someone I knew who met a 20th Century Fox executive as a result of the attacks and told everyone that the reason the World Trade Center collapsed was so she could make this contact and get cast in a Hollywood film (as far as I know, it didn't happen).

Obviously, I should be nicer to others because we all say dumb things in times of stress, shock, awe.

But I digress (and digress and digress).

Do you remember what it felt like?

I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history

Remember being young and having hope and looking at the world with a sense of awe? Remember what it felt like to watch the news without cynicism? Remember what it was like to have hope?

We couldn't have predicted it before it happened and even as we look back on it from the vantage point of two decades it seems amazing and impossible. To have watched the revolution as it happened, because it was televised, and to know the world changed for the better, I feel lucky to have been there and to have seen it.