One week ago today

One week ago today, the world started turning again. We elected Barack Obama President of the United States and suddenly it was okay to think about "other things" again. (Those other things primarily being the Himalayan pile of work for my doctoral program that has been piling up for almost two months. Lately my "detached study" status has been a whole lotta detached, and not much study.)

Although I'm still occasionally scanning websites for good post-election commentary and can't-miss photos such as the ones of the Obamas emerging from their car to be greeted by the Bushs at the White House yesterday (it reminded me of a Dave Chappellesque Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), I am no longer glued to my monitor ravaging HuffPost and Google News for what seemed like hourly twists and turns in the most important political, social and cultural year of my life. I am no longer obsessively turning on NPR the second I hop in the car and then sitting in the parking structure at work for 5 or 10 minutes to finish listening to the morning's election controversy. And although I am still on edge about the passing of Proposition 8 and the social rift it's causing in California and elsewhere right now, I do at least have some faith in its inevitable repeal now that the presidential race has been celebrated and folks are ready to give it their all on what appears to be an ongoing fight for equality and civil rights.

So, I celebrate this one week anniversary with a personal anecdote. Sunday evening we watched the 60 Minutes interview with Obama's "inner circle" and were awed by their admission that Obama's "race speech" he gave in Philadelphia was in fact his idea and almost entirely his doing, only solidifying one of the primary reasons I voted for him--that he is one of the most intelligent and remarkable people we will ever see hold this office. Then later in the evening, I caught a few minutes of Larry King interviewing Obama while I was folding some laundry. And for a split second I caught myself thinking "man, I am so sick of listening to this guy talk." And then I just started laughing. It was like having the euphoria of election night when the results were announced race back through me again. For the past year, I would've listened to Obama talk--about anything--24 hours a day, 7 days a week if I could have. But now the reality of his election sets in, and I feel liberated to both celebrate him and even be mildly annoyed by him as I would any other President--even though I may believe that he is nothing like "any other President."