Walk This Way...

Lessons Learned from a Historic Inauguration.

All images and text, copyright Karen Pugh Lascaris, 2009.

So, I started my year off big: I traveled to the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. How do I describe my experiences in words, while making them relevant to a shoe-related blog? Let's get the basics out of the way: What shoes did I wear to the Inauguration? By day: my warmest and most comfortable, like 99% of the 2 million folks there. Ditto for the clothes. By night, to the Midwest Ball: some strappy gold ones I designed, because by that time I was still so cold it didn't matter. I couldn't feel my feet anyway.
Now, for the important stuff: it was an incredible experience, and amazingly, five things stood out as examples for how to live your fullest life from 2009 onward. To begin:

#1. Find your vocation in life, pursue it wholeheartedly, and you will be rewarded. While watching the Inaugural concert on Sunday, then the Inaugural ceremonies on Tuesday, I couldn't help but think not only about the Obamas, and how their lives are a testament of dignity, integrity, service, and excellence, but this was also true for so many who stood beside them on the platform on those days.

#2. Have Faith, Persevere, and be courteous to others. The day of the concert, whenever we tried to find our way into the concert, my friends and I were told, by at least 10 rangers and policemen we asked, "NO: they're not letting anyone else in". But how could that be, I thought? We had tickets! And we hadn't even gotten to the right entrance yet, so we found one who would show us the way. He gave us directions, which we followed, and upon arriving there, were were given tickets by a very nice young woman and the wonderful security guys, to upgrade our status. We persevered - and ended up in the front section of the audience. Which brings me to:

#3 - Develop Endurance: And take care of your body. After the concert, due to over-crowded trains, we walked 4 miles home. On Inauguration Day, we found ourselves again walking for miles in even colder weather, passing through the dreaded "Tunnel of Doom", then standing for hours with thousands of others. But it was all worth it, because: #4 - If you don't take the "No's" in life as your answer, you may have the experience of a lifetime: or at the very least, your desired outcome. We watched as thousands - with tickets to the Inauguration -got discouraged (again by the cops who said "No") and walked away without getting in. When we finally got to the gate, there was nothing holding us back at all! We walked forward to the reflecting pool and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with 2 million others who were there for the common good, to witness the historic swearing-in. And we of all colors, backgrounds and faiths, bowed our heads and said The Lord's Prayer together.

#5 - Prioritize! Maybe you can't do it all in one day, but if you prioritize, you can do it all. I heard many stories of people who partied so hard in the days before, their feet hurt too badly to attend the Inauguration (they were in the wrong shoes - see it always comes back to the shoes!)! Or they missed the President's attendance at their Ball because they insisted on taking a limo, when the only reliable mode of transportation in DC was the metro.

I saw so many things I will never forget. I saw people who were blind, physically challenged or disabled, in wheelchairs and on crutches, as if on a great spiritual pilgrimage. I saw a family that mirrored Obama's own: an African father, a white mother, with their two young children - a boy and a girl (true. All true). Random people, unknown to each other, hugged, and behaved kindly toward each other: a true spirit of Love was in the air (I even hugged a man just for taking my picture. I felt he needed it). The biggest lesson of all, I think, is to find something you truly believe in, something bigger than yourself, to get behind; to stand up for. As Martin Luther King once said, "You don't have to see the whole staircase: just take the first step". Who would have thought that some of life's valuable lessons could be extracted from navigating through millions of people? Although, if you think about, that's life anyway, isn't it?