Where to begin? Heath care reform passed last night. Health care reform passed last night!!!
This morning when I got out of bed-alarmless, and before kids-the first thing I did was check my iphone. I refreshed the New York Times app, and there, the first feed read; Obama Hails Vote on Health Care as Answering ‘the call of history’.
And I have not stopped crying since. Luckily it’s Monday and I don’t have kids underfoot; because my four-year-old couldn’t understand why I was tearing-up. "Because I'm so happy!" I explained to her, but she just wrinkled her nose and shook her head. As I was driving the girls to school; I tried to explain to her that an important bill passed…”a bill that will make it easier and more affordable for everyone to get the important medicines they need.”
Sienna paused for a moment, trying to make sense of what I just had said.
Then she followed-up with, “where”.
“In Washington DC” I explained.
“Wash…..shonton….Deeeee…Ceee?
“Yeah, that’s where Obama lives”.
I could see an unsteady smile gradually spread across her face in the rearview mirror.
This part she got. She knows Obama, one of her many famous quotes can be found here when she was two-years-old. Somehow she thought the ‘O’ in Obama was a possessive. (perhaps because of the spirited tone of the anchormen and women speaking either in favor of-or against of the then-candidate during the election). So Obama became “My Bama” to Sienna.
What I didn’t explain to Sienna because Luna was sitting in the car seat next to her; is that this bill prevents insurance companies from dropping children with pre-existing conditions, while also eliminating lifetime caps, and finally prevents insurance companies from hiking rates and deductibles on families and individuals who place a lot of claims. (as all three of these measures directly protect Luna).
So, instead of explaining all of this to the precocious four-year-old, I drove down the windy country road, all three of us in silence. And for the first time, on a deeper, more personal level, I could understand what it felt like just moments after Obama was elected into office, when camera angle after camera angle depicted a black man or woman weeping. “These tears are real”, as my four-year-old often says, defending her emotions. Yes Sienna, real tears of joy.
