An American Prayer for America and Americans

   Donald J. Trump is set to be sworn in as the forty-fifth president of the United States of America a mere four hours from when this is being written, and one is moved to offer some Good Thoughts for this (in)auspicious day:

   *May the new President lead with dignity, integrity, thoughtfulness, wisdom, and the betterment of all in mind.

   *May the new President come to understand that he is the President of all Americans, and our trusted servant, too, and may he therefore lead with a decent measure of humility.

   *May the President understand the weight and gravity of the office he is about to inhabit, and may he thus undertake his duties with modesty and grace.

   *May we Americans support and uphold the dignity of the office of the President, while, if guided to do so, mightily disagreeing with he who holds it.

   *May each of us Americans pledge to continue deepening our knowledge of this country's founding principles; may we thus better understand their purposes, respect their fragility, and fight to strengthen them.

   *May all of us who culturally and/or politically disagree with others nevertheless respect their right to voice their ideas as we would voice ours, never taking for granted the preciousness of the right to freedom of speech, thought, and assembly.

   *May each of us lean toward sanity, reason, common sense and clear-eyed critical thinking, always with the goals in mind of our nation's betterment and its peoples' elevation in prospects and spirit.

   *May all of us practice courtesy, kindness, compassion, empathy, comity--radical notions, and acts, in the face of rising vulgarity and simple-minded coarseness.

   *May America, as a nation of peoples, find its place in the world as a beacon of light among many such beacons; welcome the tired, poor, and huddled masses, yearning to be free; stand for nobleness of spirit and hope for humankind; exist as an equal among many nations, humbled by its own and others' power; and continue its sometimes raucous and roiling experiment in democracy, an experiment that has both dazzled and challenged citizens for more than two centuries.

   *May any among us who detect rising authoritarianism and/or creeping tyranny stand against it with all the power of our hearts and spirits, preserving and protecting the rights to freedom and individual liberty endemic to America and key to the true happiness of humankind.

   *On this day of celebration for some and mourning for others, may we Americans remember that we are one people, indivisible except by our own small egoic fears and needs, and  that, during times of unsettling historical disruptions, it is especially important to meet new conditions with a wide-open, daring and loving heart.

   *Finally, divided though we may seem politically, as a people may we Americans stand together for the higher principles upon which this country was founded, and which, imperfectly, have guided us thus far.

   Have a good, if not necessarily happy, Inauguration Day.
   And, as they say, stay safe out there.