Unintended benefits of an Obama Presidency

So I spent the evening watching election results with a gaggle of roundy 20 somethings, one of which is my very cool co-worker, The Garb. We were over at his place watching it all unfold, talking smack about ballet measures and proposition 8 and generally having a good time.

Apparently a favored drinking game throughout the race was taking a slug everytime McCain used the phrase "My friends" in a sentence. The fine tradition had begun during the debates and was upheld last night during his concession speech and, my goodness, those boys were into 9 drinks in that 10 minutes alone. I am sure that no one felt disenfranchised.

Towards the end of (my) evening, I had a very interesting discussion with a mid 20's Latino gent who had just fielded a call from his very upset father (Obama is a Socialist, ya'll....watchout) and was well into his third Red Stripe. Strikingly, here this guy was talking about his friends children who are approximately the same ages as Obama's children. His eyes misted over a bit when he made mention of the fact that this is a historic election not only for all the OTHER reasons it's historic, but because those children would grow up in a world where having an African American president ISN'T an anomoly. Their lives in politics will always have that barrier broken, like my life will always have the Berlin wall falling and my parents lives will always have the end of World War II.

I felt moved in an unexpected way.

There has been much talk of a revival of "hope" or "pride" in being an American, which I can't say I have ever felt. But standing there, steading a slightly swaying, euphoric Latino boy who is a generation younger than I am, I felt like the an unnamed and unsettled cloud of impending doom I have always felt with regard to this country had be slightly lifted.

Yesterday was exactly (mathmatically) halfway through my pregnancy (20 weeks) and felt like a turning point.

It seems like, for just the merest whispers of a second, that bringing a child into this world, at this time, wasn't such a terrible thing after all.