I woke up this morning feeling surreal. Did this really happen? Did we really elect him? Did we just witness history?

The answer is holy crap, YES. YES, I lived through and witnessed something amazing. All of a sudden, for an exquisite moment, the weight of humankind’s past story and future hopes and all of our progress was so palpable I could perhaps poke it. Jess said to me, “Years from now your children will be amazed that you were there. That you cast a vote that helped put Barack Obama in office. They will ask you, ‘What were you doing when the results came in? What were you doing when history was made?’” (And I will say, “Uh, doing some art project I think.”)

But yes, forget the theoretical children. I can hardly believe it myself. We were all there!

And today, I am so elated and inspired and, dare I say it, hopeful that I can hardly concentrate on work. This is proof that the democratic process works, that the people can get their voices heard, that the US can overcome the inertia of the powerful conservative heartland and move on to try something new.

Only time will tell if “something new” is something positive, but I don’t think we will have hoped in vain. I think that riding on the wings of optimism alone, an emotion which the former Senator was so great at instilling, will tide us through many the problems we’ve piled onto ourselves. It may just be a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing.

Oh man. I’ve never been this riled up over an election before. But did I mention this was remarkable?