Like many of you, I watched the inauguration this morning with one ear tuned to the television, where our new President was giving his speech, and one ear tuned to the torrent of rain outside my window that was slowly turning my backyard into a lake. While everyone has a different interpretation of what was said and done and meant during the ceremony, I can’t stop thinking about the word “inauguration” itself. According to Merrium Webster, the definition of the word inaugurate is “to bring about the beginning of.” To begin, to commence, to start, to initiate.
Right now, we’re at the start of a new Presidential term and the beginning of a brand new year, both of which have been the topics of much speculation. Yet, at this exact moment in time, you are also reading a new sentence, thinking a new thought, taking a new breath, and enjoying a new moment composed of an entirely new combination of sights, sounds and circumstances.
This reminds me that, in life, whether we’re a Commander-In-Chief or a concerned citizen, we are constantly asked to begin again. And again. And again.
Every time we fall down, we must summon our strength and rise back up. Every time we have our hearts broken, we must mend ourselves and love again. Every time we have a failure or a disappointment or a setback, we must dust off our pride and keep moving in the direction of our dreams.
Each new dawn, each new breath, each new moment is an inauguration, a beginning. And, just like our President, this inauguration requires an oath; it asks us to make a solemn promise—to ourselves--as to how we’re going to live our lives, where we’re going to pledge our allegiance, our service, our love. Where we’re going to invest our time, our energy, our own humanity.
The word inaugurate comes from the Latin word “augur,” which means two things:
1. “To give promise of.”
Trump stood up in front of the world this morning and made this promise: “I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down.”
And as we wait to see how he will interpret and enact that promise, the real question is: what do we want to fight for? What do we want to lend our voice, our breath, our very being, to? What promise are we fulfilling, both for ourselves and for the world, in every moment, with every action that we take?
2. “To predict the future.”
While we certainly cannot predict the exact effect that our choices will have, one thing that we know for certain is that the actions that we take today will, in fact, shape our tomorrow. They will add up to the future—and the world—that we create for ourselves. So it’s imperative that we put our time and energy into actions and causes that matter to us and that create more of what we want to see in the world: kindness, fairness, love, hope, truth, equality, compassion, justice, peace.
I urge you to make this Inauguration Day, this Inaugural moment, your own.