The cars lined up to drop off donations stretched from the door of the Naperville Goodwill store all the way to Fort Hill Drive Saturday.
You remember Saturday, that rarest of mid-winter January days when the mercury topped 60 degrees.
I made two trips to Goodwill myself that day, my fossil fuel-burning SUV largely full both times. The first load was amassed after an impromptu spring cleaning of our garage, not that it was really spring at all but it sure felt like it. Hey, if we’re all going to perish by burning up the planet or some other human-created means, we ought to at least have clean garages when we go, right?
That first hint of warmth each year never fails to inspire, drawing us out of our homes for outdoor activities we haven’t enjoyed in months, conjuring thoughts of washing cars, playing ball and firing up barbecues. But, again, it was Jan. 21. This was different.
When I took that truck to the carwash earlier that afternoon and saw the triple-lane line wrapped 10 cars deep, I knew I wasn’t alone. Was it just the warmth that had brought us all out, or something more? It seemed as if we were cleaning more than just our cars.
The day before had been a dark day – literally and figuratively. We groused back and forth. We rolled our eyes at the person who would say this and sniped back at the Facebook friend who would say that. We were divided, and we didn’t seem to have much appetite for anything else. Of course it rained, as it had done for days, in Naperville, and in Washington, D.C., at the precise moment our new president began to speak.
But on Saturday, the sun came out. Women’s right supporters marched peacefully by the hundreds of thousands in Washington, Chicago and other cities across the country, asserting that their voices will be heard. Not just these next four years, but for all time.
As much as spring is a time for cleaning, it’s also a time for cleansing. That’s an important distinction. It’s a time for starting fresh, purging what encumbered us and beginning anew. With all we’d seen and heard on TV, in our social feeds and otherwise, the day after the presidential inauguration seemed to call for a breath of fresh air. And though it was clearly not yet spring – not even close – Saturday sure had that feeling. In more ways than one.
In a sense, spring came to Washington and in turn to the country on Friday and Saturday. Regardless your political persuasion you must agree, it was indeed out with the old and in with the new. Whether we liked it or not, it was time to cleanse. Time to move on.
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After returning from my first trip to Goodwill on Saturday, I drove past a neighbor’s house only to see my wife there helping her clean out her garage, much as we’d done with ours earlier. I stopped and was promptly given another load of donations to take on a second trip to Goodwill. Turns out our neighbor, like many of us that day, had been thinking much as we had.
Whether it was the warm temperatures, or just a sense of wanting to do something for our fellow people, many of us were moved to symbolism that day. Whether you marched or took a truckload of donated items to Goodwill or did something similar, you were likely in this group. And it wasn’t just here. All day long, posts popped into my Facebook feed from friends near and far who talked about similar activities.
It was a day for cleansing, for restoring order, for doing at once both for ourselves and for others. And that’s exactly what many of us did, confirmed by the Goodwill worker who, as he helped me unload my second drop-off, said they were indeed much busier that day.
For better or worse, it was a new day in America, and of course in Naperville too.
Yes, it was one nice Saturday indeed.
Rob Manker is a freelance writer who lives and parents in Naperville.
Twitter: @RobManker