Today, I wept but my heart is light

I wept today. It couldn't be helped. My tears could not be stopped.

He said he could. He did.
He won. We won.
Oh, what a day. Oh, what a time.

I will not forget the televised images I saw today. A huge crowd of smiling, happy people who radiated hope and trust and belief in the possible. A sea of faces of every color, shape and hue standing where once slaves in tents lived while building the capital. A sea of faces exuding pride looking towards the first black president of the United States of America.

And today I, too, am a proud American.
I wept in pride and joy and hope.

I cannot remember a time in my life with so much excitement, so much hope and optimism in the changing of the guard. Now, this man, this young Barack Obama, now President Obama, has come to lift our hearts and rekindle our spirits.

Yes, he calls upon our higher instincts for love and generosity, responsibility and accountability to one another for the common. He calls us to service; he acknowledges difficult times ahead. Yes the times will be hard, that is clear. But I have the feeling that he will be truthful with the American people. I believe we can trust him. I have not felt that for a very long time.

After Nixon. Watergate. The failed Carter administration. The mean-spiritedness engendered by Reagon. Disappointment in the unfulfilled potential of Clinton. The last dismal and long eight years of Bush the Son. After 40-odd years of feeling let down by various administrations, there is a wonderful lightness in my heart. Today I wept but my heart sang.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present . . . . .

The First Family/Elect.

I wept when CNN called the race for Obama.

I wept for the wonder of it; for the rightness of it.

It touched a place deep inside that opened a well-spring of tears that just would not stop.

I cried for hope and optimism and for all that Obama represents, his extraordinary intelligence, vision, and for his beautiful family .... his beautiful and quite extraordinary Michelle who will no doubt bring something fresh and new to the role of first lady. I just could not stop crying.

And then on Wednesday Larry and I saw The Secret Life of Bees at the cinema. I read the book a few years ago; loved it. It was one of those books you love to love. I fell into it and only wanted to turn pages -- not think about mundane obligations like cooking and eating and work.

The book is a civil rights story, 1964 South Carolina. President Johnson has just signed the Civil Rights Act.

The books, the film were made all the more poignant by the extraordinary events of the day before and I cried more and again to think that finally after the generations of injustice to blacks and 44 years after signing of the Civil Rights Act, we as a country have finally done the right thing. We did the thing right and the right thing.

I am proud to be American. Proud that we can and will have a smooth and near seamless transfer of power. And proud of 52% of Americans who gave all the little boys and girls the ability to truly say, "I can be anything" "even president of the United States".