it finally hit me

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome". Yes we can." Excerpts from Obama's victory speech

I became a little emotional reading this and looking at pictures from election day on the internet. I know that the role of race in this election has been debated, but today I feel up for celebrating.

I am currently blogging to you from Los Pinos, Tegucigalpa, Honduras: a slum community where hunger, violence and miserable living conditions are a reality for thousands of families. In my 2 years of living in Honduras, I have asked myself, how can things change... can things change? Sometimes the poverty, corruption and injustice seem overwhelming and overwhelmingly complex. I have been re-reading a book called The Allure of Hope by Jan Meyers. It talks about how we respond to brokennes and stolen dreams:

"..the option of hopefull remembrance and vision. Frederick Buechner says, 'The world can be kind, and it can be cruel. It can be beautiful and it can be appalling. It can give us good reason to hope and good reason to give up all hope. It can strengthen our faith in a loving God, and it can decimate our faith.' .... Choosing to respond to hope requires courage, vision, and patience."

"Perspective is a keyword in our society.... A new point of view that produces change when our hearts are swept away in disappointment and we are looking for some moorings? In many ways, yes. But perspective settles for a little glory. God does not have perspective about our transformation, He SEES it. Perspective shifts the puzzle pieces of our circumstances around until we feel better about the picture; vision sees what the puzzle was meant to be. Perspective helps us cope, but coping is so much less than what our lives were made for. I can't imagine Jesus looking around at His twelve friends at the Last Supper and saying, 'You can have the peace I leave with you if you work really hard at keeping a good perspective on things.' No, He invites them to see differently, to see beyond. He says, 'My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.' (Jn 14:27). Jesus tells us there is something different that we haven't seen yet-what we need are new eyes. Perspective must flow from a vision for more, for what we haven't yet seen... Buechner puts it this way: 'It is in Jesus, of course, and in the people whose lives have been deeply touched by Jesus, and in ourselves at those moments when we also are deeply touched by him, that we see another way of being human in this world, which is the way of wholeness.' This is what my heroes have done for me. When our stolen dreams are the only ones in front of our eyes, there is no choice for us but to lose heart. When our vision is expanded to include prostitutes turned tender, crusty women turned luminous, lonely women turned lavish, we find that our dreams matter to God."

This books is written more for women's personal lives, but I would continue her train of thought to include the stolen dreams of communities. It is in Jesus that we see a way of wholeness in the community, a shalom community made reality. When our stolen dreams are the only ones in front of our eyes, we lose heart, become cynical, bitter and fearful. When our vision is expanded to include broken communities made whole (Nehemiah), spiritual communities gone astray and then returned to God (Israel), corrupt leaders turned to justice (Zacheus) and enemies become family (Jews and Gentiles, Paul)- we find that our dreams matter to God. We find that hope is the right response to the stolen dreams of the community. Today I find encouragement and my hope for Honduras is renewed as my vision is included to see a nation that once outlawed African-Americans and women to vote, turn out in record numbers to elect an African-American president.