on being an American

Putting politics aside and any trepidation I feel about possible upcoming legislation...

I appreciate being able to witness history.
I appreciate that in this country dreaming is encouraged not as an escape but as a means to an actually acheivable end.

My grandma told me once, we were in Nauvoo, that she believed that wherever great sacrafice has been made, an umbrella of the Spirit exists over that place forever. When you go to places like that (Nauvoo, D.C.--she lived there, cemeteries, Pearl Harbor, Ground Zero), you feel it. I always think of her, a person who is familiar with sacrafice herself, and what she said when I feel it, wherever I am in the world. I felt it in Peru at the strange, stacked gravesites of my husbands grandparents whom he never met and I never knew at all. I appreciated so much at that moment the sacrafice of my mother-in-law's father, who encouraged her and made it possible for her to come to America. His sacrafice changed my life forever.

Today I noticed that the same sort of Spirit umbrella extended over the swearing in of an African-American president. The Spirit of the sacrafices, dreams, toil, and bondage of so many people hovered over that moment. I appreciate being able to feel it.

I appreciate living in a country where prayer using the name Jesus Christ is part of a national ceremony broadcast by the media to everyone here and all over the world.

I remember when we lived in Italy, Brother Mazzolari took me to a BYU Touring Orchestra performace at a castle. Brother Mazzolari didn't speak English, except one phrase: "My wife is a witch." He loved saying that over and over. During the concert we were sitting next to each other and several other members of the Italian ward. Late in the program the Orchestra played, "The Star Spangled Banner." I felt a little hesitant making a spectacle of myself, since I was already a foreigner and out of fashion and color. But I stood. And when I stood and sang and put my hand over my heart, I felt something. I felt a strong gratitude, a strength...I felt the Spirit. No one else stood, even though there were other Americans there. It may have been uncooth. But it was a valuable experience for me. Brother Mazzolari told Fernando later to tell me how impressed he was with my patriotism and how he wished Italians had a tradition like that.

I feel blessed to be an American. People in our country volunteer to fight abroad for freedom. I feel so grateful God led people to this place, people who wanted something different.

I watched my little children dance to the John Williams number during the inaguration today. An Asian, a black man, a white man, and a woman played the number in a quartet. I watched my childrens' little bare whitish-brown legs springing across the carpet and I felt grateful that they can feel free to acheive.