Country

Several people over the last few days have asked whether or not we would be attending any of the inaugural festivities that have brought our city to a virtual standstill.

Clearly, I need to review a few things about myself.

I don’t like the cold. The temperature here has been somewhere between 7 and 31 for the past 5 days.

I don’t enjoy porta potties. And although my years in the operating room trained my bladder well, I don’t think even I could have lasted all day.

The last time we attended something big like this on the mall was the 4th of July celebration about 4 years ago. It took us 3 hours to get home. 3 hours with cranky hot children and standing room only on the buses and metro. NEVER AGAIN.

I could go on.

So no, we didn’t go to any of the festivities. We stayed home and watched everything from our comfy couch.

I did turn down the thermostat to 65 in a move of solidarity.

But even though I wasn’t there, I was mightily moved by the events of the day. From the opening prayer by Rick Warren to the mighty voice of Aretha Franklin (loved the hat!) to the solemity of the oath taken by both VP Biden and President Obama, to the moving benediction by Rev. Lowery. I was alternately smiling and sobbing.

Whatever your politics, it was a great day to be an American. It’s a new day.

Even if you didn’t leave your couch.

There have been a couple of things that have happened lately that have made me especially proud to be an American.

The first was the promotion ceremony of a dear friend of ours to Colonel in the United States Air Force. Don is a great guy and the promotion was certainly well deserved. The ceremony was held in the Hall of Heros in the Pentegon. This is a room that has the names of all those that have been awarded the Medal of Honor in service to our country. It was a fitting place. Don’s service to our country has been impressive, but not surprising as he comes from a family of public servants. His dad worked for the park service for greater than 30 years and his brother is a captain at a fire house in Sacremento. He spoke movingly about both of them and then passed the challenge of public service on to his 8 year old son, Stephen.

As I sat there I was proud of the fact that my husband has served his country for almost 20 years. The military has been a good life for us. We’ve been fortunate that he has only been deployed once in all the years we’ve been married and that we’ve had a very normal family life. Our time in the military has enabled us to move around the country a bit and see that there really is a much larger world out there than where either of us came from. We’ve met all sorts of wonderful people and had some great opportunities. We’ve had the satisfaction of working for something that is bigger than ourselves.

I’m also proud to say that my children have been captivated by this election. Katie is right now lobbying us to let her stay up to see if her candidate wins. She’s got her blue and red coloring pencils and a map of the US to color the states in as the results come in. It’s been wonderful to see them excited by a process that lots of us feel so jaded about. As a girl I remember going with my daddy down to the football stadium where there would be a flat bed truck pulled up. On that truck there would be a big blackboard and Wayne Reynolds (who also called all the football games) would be up there calling out the returns as they came in and posting them on that blackboard.

JD and I got up at 5:15 this morning to vote. Although the lines were probably shorter later in the day, it was kind of neat to be there with all our neighbors. There was a palpable feeling in the air. An excitement that I can’t say I’ve felt before with any election. So I was also proud that I live in a country where I get a say in who runs the country that my husband serves.

Whatever happens with the election tonight, it would do us all well to remember that we are blessed to live here. A place were we can vote freely, serve our country without reservation, and pass a sense of service on to our children.

Proud to be an American?

Indeed.

Update: It’s 1am and if you watched both John McCain’s very gracious concession speech and Obama’s eloquent acceptance speech as I just did, I think that’s one more reason to be proud.

And hopeful.