One order of Food for Joyous Laughter, please

In Pirates of Penzance, when Josephine promises to "be faithful to her sooth, til we are wed and even after!" it sparks much celebration, this show of commitment even in the face of a possible 40-year delay of the nupitals.

When was the last time I felt that organically joyous in a crowd? What comes to mind was the plane ride back from accompanying GrannyD the last 20 miles of her cross-country walk for campaign finance reform. So many of us independently came to the same conclusion: if a 90 year old grandmother can walk from Pasadena to Washington DC in 14 months, I guess I can come do the last couple miles with her. And about 3000 of us, without much planning, made it there to join her. People she met along her walk, ten miles a day, town by town, reconnecting America one conversation at a time.

When she finally made it to the steps, the Today show and Good Morning America competed to cover the moment. But it was the lonely cornfields along the way that gave her the credibility.

That love and truth, that genuine slogging day by day effort, translated into a high of overflowing joy, where strangers meeting on the plane back celebrated the entire way. And we got McCain-Feingold passed.

I think Mamdani has some of this energy, and there must be others. If you find one, treasure them and share. We are all waiting.

photo from wikimedia commons - I was there, but don't have any photos handy!