This Really Happened in America

I'm proud of my country at the moment. This really happened. We really elected a candidate for the people and for the world last night. We might still have some things to accomplish (read: Prop 8) but I'm pretty darn happy.

Being in a blue state right now is a pretty glorious thing. I am surrounded by mostly happy people. On Wednesday morning, people were quite literally walking around smiling on their way to work. The energy was contagious and heart-warming. I had to wonder, "What if we all felt like this every day?"

We were plenty happy enough to overcome would-be kill joys. Last night, I was on train with some stodgy, rigid Wall Street jug heads who were openly discussing their fears of the President-Elect. It was clear that the rest of us on the packed train were listening to them with a mixture of surprise and slight annoyance, wondering why they were on the train not riding around in their town cars. But it didn't even make a dent in our joy. It just brought it out more. I leaned over to the older lady next to me, who'd been sweetly eyeing me as I commented on student papers. I said, "Are there really Republicans on the train?" She giggled back and said, "Yeah, there is still work to do..." And then we spent the next 20 minutes enjoying each other, talking about that work, and talking about the young people who were telling us that they now felt that they could "Do anything in American because a black man had been elected president of America"