Today wasn’t meant to surprise us. Most of us know who won the race. The events have been laid out for weeks. The scripts have been written, memorized, and calculated so as not to shock. But when Amanda Gorman stepped to the podium at today’s inauguration, the tone changed and the script was flipped. Dozens of gray-haired leaders looked up and listened to the wisdom of the 22-year old Youth Poet Laureate. “The new dawn blooms as we free it,” Gorman said. “For there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it.” To say the kids are alright is too trite. To say the next generation will be the most resilient yet is too much understatement. Instead, it would do us good to listen — to the wise words of the rising generation.
