A Sigh of Relief

photo courtesy of Spencer Greet

And so, history is made in a day.

Voting early yesterday, the mood was festive, the lines were long. Norm and I met a potential new friend, standing behind us in line, who bikes with a local group; we talked about the possibility of joining him on a Sunday morning.

It was an odd day of waiting. Spence and I played Scrabble, and he whupped me good.

Last night, watching the returns was riveting. Surfing around the channels, Norm and I watched everything from BBC News to CNN to Fox News to Indecision 08 on the Comedy channel.

The really interesting show, however, was the one Spence was putting on down at the computer. Spence jumped on the Obama bandwagon months ago, and spent the evening monitoring returns on the web. He mostly monitored CNN online, and would shout electoral vote tallies to us as they came in; CNN online was way ahead of CNN TV and other televised election coverage. He also worked Facebook, keeping his friends up on the states as they were called (at one point, corresponding with eleven of them, including cousin Kyle.)

It was incredibly touching and magical to see Spencer's enthusiasm, and that of the teenagers he knows, almost all of whom also were Obama supporters. Apparently the meme of the day was to "donate" your status on Facebook to encourage people to vote in support of Obama. One by one these kids did this, and the word spread; ultimately something like one million plus Facebook users joined in. I was proud of the interest of his generation in this seminal moment, and I think it bodes well for the future.

At one point, Spence was corresponding with our friend Jan in Canada, and his former babysitter Kim in Australia. It was almost like a global party. Both of these friends were relieved by the outcome of the election.

He came running in to the room when the race was called. Norm and I toasted each other with a glass of Prosecco, and we watched Obama give a speech for the ages.

We all stayed up way too late, and getting up this morning was hard. But it was wonderful to be in the moment, even knowing that life will get back to normal, albeit a new normal, and remembering that there are many problems to be faced.

Still, it is not often that we get to see people dancing in the streets. Regardless of whom you voted for, it has to be moving to see so many people happy. That particular emotion has been in short supply for a while now.

Oddly enough, here in Philly it is the second week in a row that we have had this kind of euphoria.

I could get used to this.