The Garden of History: What the Women's March for America (Hopefully!) means.

             It's very unusual to see the entire world celebrating -- or even acknowledging -- the same important moment at the same time. The last example of this to my mind is the worldwide welcoming of the new millennium at the dawn of 2000. As the earth spun through the sky, each new longitudinal slice of humanity celebrated the new all-world, all-peoples' milestone at the stroke of the midnight -- or they cheated a little on the timing, but who cares. It was the universality that accounted.

            Here we all are! Still here! And turning a page in triumph.

            So it was a true delight to see images of the weekend's Women's March from all over the world, all seven continents (as the newspapers put it). People standing up for decency, fairness, affirmation of women's and human rights. For democratic and egalitarian values.

            The pictures I saw are from the website of the New York Times. I hope the Times keeps the link available for a long time.

            Here's the link for the images: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/21/world/womens-march-pictures.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

           

            Here's what these photos mean to me.

            They're a vote for the view that love triumphs. An international vote for the values of caring, compassion, protection of the weak, the embrace of all human beings regardless of what country they live in, whatever their ethnic, religious background, gender, or the color of the skin. Everybody is a human being. Everybody is born of woman. Everyone is loved by someone (or many someones) and loves someone else. Everyone deserves decent living conditions. Everybody deserves a helping hand when in need of one, and pretty much everyone will need one at one time or another.

            Let's embrace that moment, and go from there.