The election of Barack Obama

:-)

This expression has been on my face for the past 37 hours. I'll let others who are better at historical punditry explain how significant this is. I just want to comment on the last portion of Barack's speech in Chicago on Tuesday night. It's difficult at times to imagine what is possible, and imagine whether or not we can really change as a country and as a people. Even for those of us who WANT that change, it's difficult. Maybe even more so. But the story of Ann Nixon Cooper and others like her give me pause. As he described all of the things that she had seen in her life, it became clear to me that change does happen, we can make progress in the face of extreme adversity. Even if we don't get there in my lifetime, the promise of this wonderful experiment we call America is what makes it worth continuing to struggle and fight for. I will never forget Tuesday night. I got to share it with some incredible people, and we will have that for the rest of our lives. Even my 6-year old niece was excited.

I still have that grin on my face. But it's time to get to work. And I'm not just talking about what I do for a paycheck.