20 / The "Yes We Can" Presidency

Today, January 20, 2009, we await the inauguration of our new President, and we wait with particular expectation for the words that our new President will speak. In the beginning ... is the "word."

At this solemn and sacred moment the people of the United States know that we may begin again to build a world that will be a worthy response to the blessings that Nature and our history have provided. We do live, most immediately, in a world we create ourselves, by the choices we make, and by the actions we take. In the world of Nature, upon which we ultimately depend, and this a world we did not create, "natural laws" apply. In the world we create, the laws that apply are the laws we write ourselves.

That we create the world in which we live is a truth that is evident in the land use policy arena in which I spend so much of my time. How we decide to use (or abuse) the land is how we decide what sort of world we will build, and what sort of world we will leave our children. In fact, however, the truth that we, ourselves, create the world in which we most immediately live is a general statement about the nature of our human condition.

The new Presidency that begins today is the “Yes We Can” Presidency. Si se puede! The reason that the entire world is holding its breath, waiting for the words of Barack Obama, is that our new President has already, and inspirationally, stated what we all know is true. We can (yes, we can) create a new, and different, and better world, within the world of Nature., and a human world that respects to the world of Nature that is the source of all life. We can create, and then inhabit, a world that responds to the most profound needs and aspirations that bind us together around the globe.

We know, all of us know, that the true change we hope for and require will require us to change our own lives. So we wait for the words, today, that will turn us to those actions. And in our hearts, and in the streets, we whisper and we shout "Yes We Can." We can change what we must change, and we are willing to change our lives to do it.