Inauguration Day

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5:00 a.m.

Alarm. Coffee and stretching in the dark.  Routine celebration.
A surfboard and a sunrise drive. High tide and heavy beach break on the north coast.
“Choose wisely” is the mantra I mind, rolling with the swell.

This is as suitable a guide for democracy as sizable surf, and today I am thankful that collectively we have chosen wisely. And I am proud of my country. Two years ago, when all the political hoopla got going, I was supremely skeptical of the prospect of America electing a multiracial man named Barack Hussein Obama as our President. Not a chance, no hope.  But hope proved audacious, and enough patriots performed the fundamental civic duty and voted to change the world.

I certainly could not foresee this sea change when I wrote my first Matador blog in 2007. In it, I decried the political impotence of Americans and haphazardly compared social change to seismic activity, wondering when and in what way the U.S. fault line might eventually slip. After posting the hasty missive, I questioned my tone, worrying about the lists I might end up on inadvertently, despite the fact that the only nineteenth century thinker I had mentioned was Durkheim. Thankfully, the fault’s movement was peaceful and democratic instead of coerced or violent, and hopefully we will never again have a government that makes the will and the rights of the people seem so feeble in the face of strategic abuse of power.

9:00 a.m.

I turn on the television for the first time since the night of the election. Multitasking as usual, I halfheartedly watch the ex-presidents file in as I proofread an essay for a fellowship competition. Significantly, the fellowship is sponsored by a federal agency and includes a government service requirement.  A year ago I would not have considered such a thing, but within the hour my country is going to change monumentally.

Deep down I feel that with or without any formal service obligation those of us who believe in this transformation have a duty to our world, our country and our newly elected leader to help ensure that change is realized. All figurative comparisons aside, the change we have voted for and upon which our diverse visions of the future depend will not simply happen the way that an earthquake might. As Gandhi suggested, we must, each one of us, embody it.  And somehow we must keep our hope strong while moving beyond its solace to a deeper engagement with the difficult challenges at hand.

A barely sworn-in President Obama tells us as much in his inaugural address, commanding us to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

And so we must.