An epigraph from Erdrich...

"The same Chippewa word is used both for flirting and hunting game, while another Chippewa word connotes both using force in intercourse and also killing a bear with one's bare hands." —Dunning, 1959

Leaving the city...

From her window seat, thousands of feet above the city, she wondered if she could pinpoint his window—in the towers of twinkling squares—if it would be yellow or black.

And I, I have much farther to go...

"Much Farther to Go" by Rosie Thomas

New York is lovely in the winter time,
how the sidewalks are white as snow.
The buildings, all the people that pass me by,
how the smile on his face says he's in love.

I took the train all the way to Brooklyn Heights;
I remember when you took it there with me.
We sat side by side and held hands for some time;
we saluted the Statue of Liberty.

And I, I have much farther to go.
Everything is new and so unpredictable.
I should just kick my heels together and go home,
but I'm not sure where that is anymore.

Oh how I wish I could go back in time,
to the night when I heard my mother cry.
She held me in her arms and we talked for some time,
and I sang a song her mother sang to her.

And it goes something about paper dolls and what men prefer.
Something about the cross and how her Jesus died for her.
Something about love and how it's worth fighting for.
I wonder does love like that exist anymore?

And I, I have much farther to go.
And I, I'm so confused I know.
I should just kick my heels together and go home,
but I lost my way when I lost you.

Sometimes I cry when it's late at night,
and you're not there to lay next to me.
Morning breaks and the sun warms my face,
how I wish it was you warming me.

"The fierce urgency of now..."

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation—not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago. –Barack Obama

On November 4, I sat on my couch just like thousands of others. And, for the first time in quite a while, I was filled with pride to be an American.

Many of us take for granted where we are in the history of our nation. It is sometimes easy to forget that not half a century ago an African American man would not have been allowed to share a water fountain, a bathroom stall, a bus with white Americans. And now, for the first time in our nation’s history, an African American man has been elected leader—not of a minority, not of a specific county or state, but of all individuals—of all races within this country. We have come so far as a nation in such a short (historically speaking) period of time. Therein lies the beauty of America.

The television captivated my senses as I watched poignant screen shots of Americans—African American, Mexican, white, old, young, gay, straight, and from a variety of cultures and geographic locations—embracing, crying, hands clasped together. It is undeniable that this election has already proven to bridge gaps, even if only for a moment—a grand, historical moment.

This election proves to Americans that nothing is truly out of our reach. That close-mindedness is not an epidemic. That people can change. And, with that sentiment, that a country can change. And that is what we so desperately need.

I am incredibly hopeful and no longer just “blindly optimistic”. I am proud. And I look forward to the possibility of a return to greatness for the United States of America. It is what we are so desperately striving for—“A nation healed. A world repaired. An America that believes again.”

We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling, but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me. You came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union. –Barack Obama

Excerpts from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...

"Saint Anthony once wrote about having gone into the desert on silent retreat and being assaulted by all manner of visions⎯devils and angels, both. He said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. When asked how he could tell the difference, the saint said that you can only tell which is which by the way you feel after the creature has left your company. if you are appalled, he said, then it was a devil who had visited you. If you feel lightened, it was an angel."

"The Yogic sages say that all the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash. We get seduced by our own mantras and we become monuments to them. To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from our suffocating mantras."

"But I was always coming here. I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen."