Tuesday, 20th January 2009

Shall I be awake at 3.30 am tomorrow morning to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama? Maybe. I awake at odd times during the night and spend an hour or so on the internet, sometimes reading obscure articles I come upon accidentally, e.g. "The Universe as a Hologram", sometimes finding a YouTube gem to make me laugh. (It is essential for happiness that one should laugh twelve times per day [or night]).

Presently I am working my way through the British QI series, hosted by the indomitable Stephen Fry at whose feet I worship. QI stands for "quite interesting" and Stephen puts questions to a panel of four funny, clever, witty people and marks them not as to the correctness of their replies but as to the interestingness of their responses. The result is pure joy and I am blessed to share it as I sit alone at my computer in the wee small hours almost crying with laughter.

Back to Barack (perhaps his slogan should have been "back to back" or even "back to black"?). The cartoon in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald said it all for me - Barack Obama standing before the multitudes as they raise high their arms and voices: "Show us a miracle! Show us a miracle! Show us a miracle!" Many folk around the world are busily occupied with waiting for the messiah but none more so than the Americans, it seems. And what if (oh, unforgivable thought!) we are mistaken. What if he turns out not to be the messiah. What if he is just a very nice handsome black man? What then?

"Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!"