A Good Day

I was going to write about all of the anti-Bush bumper stickers I've seen throughout these past eight years, and how much they pleased me and how much I wanted some but never made that purchase. And how my car has been unadorned, and how glad I am for this day, for 1-20-09, and about the bumper stickers with that date plastered in white upon a black background.

'End of an Error', and all that.

It doesn't feel right, though, and I don't have to fight too hard against that first inclination. People would correct in saying all the things that have happened to our country over these past two terms. Those are real and have happened and have diminished us.

But today I feel like it's spring. Like that feeling you get when you start opening windows and leaving them open, how the air smells like rain and dirt and grass and new flowers, and it's all slightly intoxicating. Like you're hopeful that the bitter chill of winter is behind you, and what you see now is what you can hold on to. Light and warmth and the tentative hope of renewal.

The bulbs will come up no matter what. But it feels a bit like a new earth.

I'm glad to be done with what came before, and I'm hopeful about the future.

I'm glad, too, that Barack Obama will be the first President my girls will truly remember It's a good day to be an American.