Not Perfect, But Still Pretty Sweet

I'm still weepy, though not so much in a good way. Apparently I missed my window of opportunity to get all the tears of happiness out of my system last night, and now the tears are corroding my insides and making me tired and sad. Of course, the less than six hours of sleep and the alcohol I consumed last night might also be a part of that.

I'm happy beyond words that my candidate was elected. My candidate from before the primaries! I finally got one right! In two and a half months, a man that I voted for, whom I respect and admire, will finally be President. For the first time in my "young voter" life. Oh My God. I can't even describe how happy that makes me.

Of course, there's a few gray clouds poking around in my blue sky of hope today. I am really disappointed (yet not surprised) that Amendment Two passed here in Florida. I am appalled that Arkansas passed a ban on non-married couples adopting/foster parenting children. Because marriage is obviously more important to these people than finding loving, nurturing homes for children in need. And let's not forget the 18,000 couples in California who woke up yesterday married to one another and who woke up this morning to a completely different reality. (side bar: if the state dissolves your marriage, do you have to return the gifts?)

I have been glued to Scalzi's Whatever for the past few weeks. It's helpful when I'm at a loss for words to find an author who shares many of my beliefs and says what I want to in a way that's infinitely more eloquent than I possibly could. For example:

I’ve had a couple of people write me and ask me if I had any thoughts about the fact the US elected a black man to the presidency. I do, but aside from saying I’m very proud we did, I can’t speak too much to it — or more accurately, won’t. I was obviously aware of Obama’s race, but it wasn’t close to being a factor for my vote, and I think it would be insincere for me now to push it into the forefront of my personal consideration. But more than that, look, you know what, I’m white, and the Obama victory doesn’t have the visceral weight in my psyche that it has for blacks in this country, and I don’t want to pretend it does. I stand outside that particular victory, and I am content to let others have it, because it is theirs. I have enough victories through Obama at the moment that I don’t have to have them all.

(from here, which also addresses Prop. 8 and some other electoral odds & ends. I also recommend his reality check about the election and the difference between Obama the ideal and Obama the President)

What he said is what I tried to say to Scott earlier tonight. Yes, it's fabulous that we were a part of history. I'm proud of that fact, and look forward to telling my kids about it some day. Right now, I'm less concerned about this moment's place in history and more concerned about the promise of tomorrow.

And tomorrow looks pretty sweet to me.