Here’s a fun little rabbit trail of thought: The song in the background of this scene is “Auld Lang Syne,” which shares meter with “America the Beautiful,” one of many people’s favorite hymns to the beauty and possibility of our nation. You can sing it to the whole of the “Auld Lang Syne” tune.

It was written by Wellesley English Professor Katharine Lee Bates in 1893. Bates’ life love was Katharine Coman, without whom, she said “sometimes not quite sure whether I’m alive or not.”

btw, I phone-banked for the first time ever last week. I was very apprehensive about calling strangers to talk about a deeply personal issue, but the training and guidelines made it much safer and simpler than I’d imagined, and the camaraderie with all of us in the room was great. A little bell was rung each time we got a “no on 8” commitment from a voter, and throughout the evening you could hear those little bells chime out from around the room.