Between Barack and Hard Place

Barack Obama's win last night was not a surprise. In fact it was practically a lock. You could have literally set an alarm if you did the math that when the California polls closed, it was going to be game over. It was as much a predictable event as you could imagine. And it's been that way for weeks...maybe months.

So why when it happened at 11:00pm EST was I so moved?

I'm not generally the kind of person who feels moved to action. Do I enjoy being spontaneous? Sure, but that's not what I'm feeling today.

I'm not one of those join the army on September 12 kind of guys. Sure, I get effected by things just like everyone but it's rare that I really find myself saying "I have to do something"

I have to do something.

Even as I write this I know that I am a walking, talking cliche. Just another Kool-Aid drinker following the massive tide of popularity for the President-Elect. Excluding that fact that I've been a Barrack Obama fan since 04, I'm still ready to admit that I am fully caught up in the afterglow. The difference is, this time I don't care. I'm ready to self identify as cliche and part of the herd.

Usually I take some manner of elitist pride in my ability to be above the conformity of the crowd. I don't like chanting, I don't want to be the out of breath fan outside the rock concert, I'm usually way to evolved for these kinds of things. But today I find myself out of breath talking about the events of last night. What does this mean? What happens now? What does this mean for Canada? Will he just be a tragic scapegoat of the A-bomb of an inbox he's inherited? So many questions and I'm just completely ok with it all.

I'm emotional on a level that rivals people who cry at the end of a paperback. I don't know the man, I've never met the man. Yet I feel connected to his story like it's best episode of Extreme Makeover (Home Edition) I've ever seen. You know where they give the kids a scholoariship and pay off all their old debts. Yah, that kind of emotional!

--3 days later--

I decided to save a draft of this post for 3 days to see if I was still content to post it figuring that my new found restlessness would subside. By virtue of the fact that you're reading this means that it has not. If anything it has only grown.

I suspect this will be on-going serious of blogs about Barack Obama. I completely get now why people fell so personally connected to Kennedy. I completely get it.

The other thing that I've come to realise in that last few days is that I could absolutely be indoctrinated into a cult. I used to think I was too smart for that kind of thing but if it's about something I really believe in, it's clear that with a sufficiently sophisticated execution, I can be reeled in.

I'm totally ok with it. It feels good to believe in something rather than be afraid of everything.

As cliched as his message of hope and inspiration often was, like the journey of an underdog, a good blues band or holding hands at sunset, sometimes these cliches are precisely what we need. He's chicken soup.