30 minutes to go

Everytime I turn the radio on and hear an interview of someone standing in the freezing cold of the National Mall, waiting for Barack Hussein Obama II to be inaugurated as our president, I get all weepy (it's not just you, Dan!). Folks who wont' be able to see the event but how just want to be there.

Seems the American Folklife Center is collecting sermons and orations about today's inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States. A great way to get an oral-culture snapshot (heh, heh, he said 'oral') of this historic moment.  Gods, we're all saying "historic" all the time... Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Folklife Center (probably because I have a degree in folklore & mythology), a FDR-era project of the Library of Congress that continues to record the stories, music and art of the American people.

For you Jesus-freaks, you can hear my own sermon on the inauguration here. (Odd trivia:Being painfully jet-lagged and working extemporaneously, for some strange reason I never mentioned Obama by name...)

And yes the Folklife Center is very clear that they want to hear not just from churches but also "synagogues, mosques and other places of worship, as well as...humanist organizations and other secular gatherings."