It's for real

 

I'm picturing myself 40 years from now sitting with aged friends as we recount where we were when they called Ohio for Obama on November 4, 2008. We're reclining on our futuristic chairs and remembering how the rest of the evening unfolded, the texts we sent and received ("remember text messaging?" we'll laugh) as Obama took the stage in Grant Park, remembering how we rang in the new presidency with champagne and euphoria, drinking it in with people who were alive in 1964, along with small kids for whom it would always be normal to see a black man running for president.

Just got back from a week's vacation on the east coast. We walked through buildings, squares, and cemeteries that mark our nation's beginnings - a fittingly retrospective post-election tour that heightened my sense of hope and excitement for where we are headed in 2009.