"We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist"

Back in Salty Balty after two days in the nation's capital, and I have to say, it feels a little like the morning after prom (you know, you've been looking forward to it for so long, and although its end marks the beginning of summer, you sort of want to rewind and do it all over again ... okay, maybe prom wasn't the best analogy to the first black president's inauguration, but you catch my drift).  Between manageable metros, a not-too-horrifically-early 8:30a.m. wakeup, a 15 minute walk to the Lincoln Memorial, and a position in front of the WWII memorial facing the JumboTron, braving the cold was the only glitch in an otherwise ideally managed inauguration day (well done, D.C.).  For the entirety of our new president's address, I managed to forget the chill and rise up alongside some 2 million others to meet the man we have so long been waiting for.

Obama's stories focus on the moment inspiration leaps from one hand to another.  The momentum of these exchanges that rose throughout the course of his campaign came to a palpable head yesterday morning, when millions gathered from all over the world to feel, see, or touch some part of the excitement that Barack Obama engenders.  Tuesday's success, and that of his campaign as a whole, was about spreading hope and enthusiasm from person to person on the individual level, inextricably tying everyone into a network they felt emotionally connected to. 

January 20, 2009 is a date many will not soon forget, and I feel so blessed to have been there to witness the smiles, tears and hope of all those whose lives Barack Obama has touched and changed already.