Feeling Hopeful

We watched President Obama's inauguration here at work today and I came back to my desk feeling hopeful. I wasn't worrying about today or tomorrow or all the little things that usually fill up my mind ... I was only thinking that perhaps this is the person who can truly make a difference. A difference that will be evident to my children and to their children. I was hopeful that the things that bother me about our country and our world ... the BIG things ... might actually change.

And it made me think of my grandfather, who used to tell me stories about World War II, or the first trip to the moon, or the other incredible events that he witnessed long before I was born. I imagined my grandchild sitting next to me while I talk about where I was when the first black president took office. And wouldn't it be incredible if that child's world was so different from ours, that he or she didn't even understand why that was momentous?

Times are definitely troubled, and unfortunately, it's my job to read about it every day. But I will hang on to this renewed feeling of hope, because as some great person once said "without hope, there is only despair." And even if President Obama doesn't manage to do all the great things that people are expecting, at the very least he gave us back our vision of better things to come. He has inspired an entire country and made us think about where we have been, and where we are going.

It will be interesting to see just how much one man can do.