on passing

Feel compelled to document my sadness over the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, not that it was unexpected or particularly tragic in its timing.  But like the end of summer, which looms like a large shadow as school begins tomorrow, it is a bittersweet and melancholy moment that both pulls you back to reflect on the past and pushes you forward to face the new day.  If it means a passing of the torch, a metaphor they've been talking up since Kennedy endorsed Obama in the presidential race, then this moment is somewhat anticlimactic.  But how fitting that the Obama's chose to vacation in Martha's Vineyard this summer, only a stone's throw from the Kennedy Compound and within palpable reach (both literally and figuratively)  of this great figure in American political history.   I hope the legacy of Ted Kennedy endures beyond cable television tributes, and his dreams of social justice and health care for all come to pass through the Obama presidency.