Short thoughts:
Now that I’m unemployed, I was able to stay home and watch the Inauguration. Brooke and I have commented to each other a lot tonight: the excitement that has overcome the country is palpable. The inaugural event (by my guess, probably one of the most-watched speeches in history), I thought, was an appropriate beginning. Obama struck a fine balance between hope and work, and I especially liked the shout-out to Washington before he led the troops across the Delaware. It’ll be interesting to see what the next few weeks have in store, now that the actual work comes.
I’m glad that our daughter will be born into a country where race does not limit someone from achieving.
In some ways, this does feel a little anti-climactic: the election night was such a huge, watershed moment. The tears, the relief, the songs, the fireworks (at least in our neighborhood). In some ways, it’s sort of like a wedding. The initial proposal usually is this ‘surprise’ emotion. Then the anticipation. Then the actual event, which is an immensely happy time, but doesn’t have the same ‘surprise’ emotion. In my opinion, that surprise can be cathartic, in a way that anticipated happiness cannot. With anticipation, I think it tempers emotions a bit. Which, I guess, is impressive that such emotion is still on display today.
The only down note was Obama’s flub in his speech: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” As we all know, Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President, thus making it only 43 Americans who have taken the oath.
I don’t know how big of a dork it makes me that I caught this.