To "TOP" it "OFF"!

As I was driving my 16 yr old son, Blake to the subway, this morning for school, I took the opportunity to share my thoughts on the historic perspective of Barack Obama's speech we watched last night. I told him that I really wish his "Poppi", my Dad, and his great grandparents were here to witness that great moment in. I continued to think out loud how far we have come as a people: how difficult it was for a a black man raising a son, or daughter, telling them they can be anything they want to be, but knowing deep inside, that they really couldn't; how generations of blacks folks before us, at one point, weren't allow to learn to read, yet alone, vote and participate in decisions for this country that we were a part of building. I want him to understand the obligation he has to respect the road traveled and paved that creates the opportunities he has today. I told him I feel like a "LID" was taken off last night. Even though we were always told we could be what we wanted to be...there was always a "LID" or a cap (spoken or unspoken) on how far you could really go. The word History doesn't seem like it adequately represents what happened last night! I shed a tear for my Pop and grandparents last night and felt a tremendous amount of pride this morning to be able to tell my son that HE...could be anything he wanted to be....even the President of the United States! WOW! I can't tell you how good it felt as he was gettin out the car and we exchanged our "I love you's", how good it felt to tell him to continue to work as hard as he can cause there is NO limit to what you can do. There really isn't!