There were so many moving moments of the inauguration. However, the most moving part was watching the crowd around us as they laughed and cheered and cried together. Years ago Lily Tomlin captured the feeling in her one-woman show, In Search for Signs of Intelligent life in the Universe.

At the beginning of the play, Lily ("Trudy the 'crazy' bag lady"), is standing at the corner of "Walk" and "Don't Walk", and talking to aliens from outer space, trying to explain art to them:

I show 'em this can of Campbell's tomato soup. I say, "This is soup." Then I show 'em a picture of Andy Warhol's painting of a can of Campbell's tomato soup. I say, "This is art."

"This is soup." "And this is art." Then I shuffle the two behind my back. Now what is this? No, this is soup and this is art!

Ultimately the aliens attend a play themselves and write Trudy the Bag Lady a letter about all they have learned. Trudy reads the letter to the audience: ". . . what we take with us into space that we cherish the most is the "goose bump" experience."

Trudy the bag lady addresses the audience:

Did I tell you what happened at the play? We were at the back of the theater, standing there in the dark, all of a sudden I feel one of 'em tug my sleeve, whispers, "Trudy, look."

I said, "Yeah, goose bumps. You definitely got goose bumps. You really like the play that much?" They said it wasn't the play gave 'em goose bumps, it was the audience.

I forgot to tell 'em to watch the play; they'd been watching the audience!

Yeah, to see a group of strangers sitting together in the dark, laughing and crying about the same things. . .that just knocked 'em out. They said, "Trudy, the play was soup. . .the audience. . .art." So they're taking goose bumps home with 'em. Goose bumps! Quite a souvenir.

Our family has many souvenirs from going to the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Everything from headbands and toboggans, scarves and socks, pins and posters. . .and earrings (don't ask.) But the greatest souvenir is being part of the audience. When I look around at the assortment of strangers standing together in the dark, laughing and crying at this historic time, it gave me goose bumps. And it's not just the audience that was on the National Mall that day - but the audience that is America. For when we learn to laugh and cry together, it is art.

Trudy the bag lady ends the play:

I like to think of them out there in the dark, watching us. Sometimes we'll do something and they'll laugh. Sometimes we'll do something and they'll cry. And maybe one day we'll do something so magnificent, everyone in the universe will get goose bumps.

That's the challenge for Mecklenburg Ministries, for our community, and for our nation. What can we do to bring the world together in way that will give everyone in the universe goose bumps. . .?