This Is It

Today's the day. The day we Americans elect a new leader. Brand new. No more Bush--now that's something to celebrate no matter what. The whole world is watching--not that we need any more pressure, thank you very much. My friend Sarah in England has been anxious for days about the election; perhaps the media could have done a little bit better job talking about the impact a US leader has on the rest of the world, and the anxiety this causes?
But I digress. It's a beautiful day here; the temperature will be in the 70's all day, and the sky is blue (an omen?! If the sky were red, now that would be an omen!). Linda and Kay are working at their polling places, and lots of my friends will be doing voter turnout activities. I knocked on doors for the Obama campaign on Sunday with my friend Cindy, and it made me feel hopeful in a few ways--first and foremost, the people who said they were voting for Obama in the very working class neighborhood cut right across all racial lines. That was very cool. The other uplifting thing for me was seeing how organized the Obama campaign was--if it's like this across the nation, Obama will be tough to beat. I have voted, my parents have voted, my kids have voted--one by absentee ballot, and one came home from college to vote, and Karen cut short a visit with a very ill relative to come home to vote--it's that important. A lot of my friends have voted early; we had multiple opportunities to do that here in Indiana, and it was so helpful. I have worn my 3 different "Vote" shirts to work over the past 3 weeks, so I'm even prodding strangers to do their civic duty. About all that's left to do today is pray, meditate, hope that the American people will be wise enough to elect a leader who can inspire Congress and the American people as we ALL try to tackle the garbage heap of problems left by the current administration.
While I'm worried and anxious about the election today, tomorrow and for many days to come, I'll be worried about the ability of our next president to get us out of this mess--can anyone undo what Bush has done? How long will it take? If not one term, will the American people have patience to allow the next president two terms to solve the problems? Will we finally have a Congress that realizes it's time to set aside partisan politics? Will we finally have leaders who stop running for the next election long enough to get something accomplished? Health care reform anyone?
I hope to go to a very big celebration party tonight, and for a few moments at least I hope to see my new leaders as the superheroes I need them to be.
Then tomorrow, we'll all get to work.