Well-Played America!

Yesterday was an amazing day. Truly.

It's not often this girl is rendered speechless, but when they finally declared the winner, even though the polls had been positive for the last few weeks, even though Obama's electoral vote tally had progressively outstripped McCain's exponentially throughout the evening, even though one could positively feel the winds of change in the air, I was still struck dumb that it actually happened.

It felt like those moments between nightmare and waking up, when you realize that just maybe the whole world isn't being blown apart and you might just be able to escape the clutches of the boogey man.

It's as though there was the tiniest ember of hope inside of me that this country could somehow slow and perhaps even reverse its decay, a hope that I didn't even realize was there and had been suppressed until yesterday's victory fanned it into a roaring flame.

And it was not (merely) relief that I don't have to commence daily and vigilant prayers that John McCain will remain healthy throughout an entire presidential term. It was not (only) admiration that a nation still so defined by its roots of slavery and racism could with such unity raise to its highest office a man who only decades ago could hardly have dreamed of a world in which some animals are not more equal than others.

It was, and is, a feeling of peace, of optimism, of well-being that floods through me whenever I hear him speak.

But it's not just me. It's millions of Americans (and countless others around the world) who hear Obama speak words of change and feel that not only is it possible, but that they can and will be the ones to bring it about. It's a nation that has been beaten down and is tired of hating themselves and each other and the rest of the world that now feels a renewed sense of worth and purpose.

Which is why I say, "of course. So what?" when the naysayers immediately started pointing to campaign promises that he can't possibly keep and to the trials ahead in which he will no doubt take some faltering steps. Governing a country is like trying to steer an oil tanker; changing direction happens slowly and incrementally.

What matters is that someone is finally steering this ship in the right direction.