Election day...and so much more....

(my lovely photo of Mt. McKinley was supposed
to go here but there is an upload snafu....
Check back here later!)

The excitement about today started for me last night. I woke a few times and was aware that I was dreaming about election results....I suppose I should rather have been sleeping but the truth is, I'm excited. This is the first election that I really recall feeling excited about.

The air is charged with this electrical, wonderful, magical feeling. When I got out of bed, before my head had fully awakened (hell, I might not be quite awake even yet), I went into the bathroom where my thirteen year old daughter was showering. "Do you know what today is?" I asked her. Her sleepy voice came through the sound of the streaming water, "No...."

"It's election day," and no sooner had I finished my short sentence than she said, "Oh, that's right....Oooh, I'm so excited." I thought she was making fun of me, (not that any thirteen year old daughter would do that). And then I realized that she actually is excited -- what a delicious way to start my morning -- what could be better for a parent? -- full of pride and excitement for my thirteen year old, maybe enhanced by a dose of hope that her adulthood will see some betterment in the world....

When I walked down to my polling place, my fifteen year old son went with me. We talked about the historic nature of this election (more historic from my vantage point than his). I made him accompany me, but I don't think I had to twist his arm too hard. I wanted him to feel the inside of the polling place and to be able to recall it in years to come.

And when I came out, after voting (and restraining myself from making a little smiley face next to my ballot with the purple felt tip pen that we here in California vote with), I was giddy with excitement. There was a family taking photographs next to the American flag outside the door, (the same place I had taken my oldest son's photo last February, when he voted for the first time on his 18th birthday). The mother spoke to me in a lovely accented voice, the father beamed as his four children looked on. We spoke briefly of hope and change; my voice was nervous with the excitement of it all.

This is America....This is the America that I love....

It is in the air, I tell you....As a nation, (at least how that nation looks from out here, perched on the edge of the west coast...), we are excited and hopeful. Yes, yes of course there is work to come. Yes, of course tomorrow we will still wake up unemployed and hungry and without adequate health care (and trust me, two of the three of those adjectives wake with me every day). Our loved ones and neighbors will still be in dangerous circumstances overseas. But for today, we are excited and hopeful....

Let's enjoy that optimism for today...and put it to work for us tomorrow....