At ASU Gammage in Tempe, with my young pals at “Hamilton”

I finally saw the musical “Hamilton” on what would have been my mother’s 112^th birthday. It was the best way to celebrate. But it’s not all I have in mind. I’m making progress on my sort-of-memoir. It’s a personal American history spanning more than one hundred years of my mother’s and my lives.

It will take the rest of my life to complete.

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about some of the great lines in the “Hamilton” play.

Today is Presidents Day: “You want a revolution. I want a revelation.” I’m hopeful that the revelation will involve teenage students shaming our shameful politicians (including our incompetent president) to enact gun regulations.

“History has its eyes on me”: More than ever before — although I was a history teacher –I’m drawn toward reading books like Personal History by Katharine Graham. Next will be Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

“We won the [Revolutionary] war. What was it all for?” Hamilton asks Burr, “Do you support the Constitution?”

All these years later, I ask, What’s the value of the American Dream if there is no equality, if the Constitution doesn’t apply to all? 

Perhaps I’ll see “Black Panther” later today.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” I want to tell my own story. So that’s what I’m working on these days, in my 72nd year of life. There’s a lot to think about.