Obamarama, baby, continued ...

Crazy.
That is the one word that keeps coming to mind when I think of what it was like to be in Washington, DC, for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Not crazy insane — just pure, mind-boggling, overwhelming, over-the-top crazy.
How to put into words the experience of being among the millions who traveled from all corners of this country and beyond to witness history unfold?
How to explain the awed look on so many faces, young and old, every color skin? Why people would stand in the cold for hours, jammed together in not enough space, yet content to savor the experience?
So many people assembled for so many different reasons, as individuals and as a sum greater than its parts. To cheer the triumph of an entire race. To celebrate the unleashed potential of generations to come. To pray for peace among people and nations. To renew faith in the troubled economy. To take pride in the call to service. To believe for perhaps the first time that we, as a people, can do better.
Add to this unimaginable, sweeping sense of monumental change, millions of people filling every space on every street of the nation's capital ... so full that it was — literally — impossible to walk. Stuck in a mass of humanity for an hour or two, trying to get somewhere, but going nowhere.
Somehow, everyone staying fairly calm and respectful of others. Somehow, the moment at hand making everyone realize that the all-too-often human instinct to sink to the lowest common denominator was inappropriate and unacceptable on this day of all days.
And then, to think that this force, this swelling tide of hope, has come from one man.
One man has inspired to incredible proportions a people starved for leadership and a clear and defined break from what we have known.
I am not certain of how or exactly when we got to this place, where we are so desperate, where we are so weary of the factions, the hatred and the bitterness, that we will pour by the millions into the streets just to grasp even the tiniest shred of this historical moment.
On Tuesday, among the masses, you could reach out and actually feel and hold onto the emotions. This display on the grandest scale imaginable makes me think that, yes, change will come.
It makes me think that despite all our differences — in color, in belief, in political persuasion — we can come together. We can live in peace. We can lift up those less fortunate. We can leave a good world for our children's children. We can do better.