Today I got my spousal visa sorted, finally. A huge relief. Plans are no longer as contingent as they used to be; existence seems less pre-apocalyptic. While waiting in the immigration bureau, I flipped through my passport and found this quote by Anna Julia Cooper, African American scholar and ex-slave: "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party or a class--it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." I was reminded of last night's dream: a monarch butterfly emerges from a chrysalis during a tornado while I try to capture it on video. According to a dream dictionary, the butterfly is the soul, signalling a period of great creativity, time of change, or transition the dreamer is undergoing, while the tornado indicates emotional turmoil, lack of control, potential destruction. Maybe it was an omen for this day, maybe it was a reverie about America.

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