With today’s inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, I feel a joy and pride of country that had been degraded, nearly destroyed by the eight years in office of George W Bush.

What scares me is the ‘has to be irrational’ degree of trust and hope I and so many have placed squarely on Barack. See, I call him Barack, as if I know him. I don’t like liking someone this much – the poor fellow can’t possibly get much higher, so there’s only one way to go… okay two – horizontally, or more likely, down. The crises in the world today, not just in the US, are so overwhelming that no one man or woman, no matter how smart, calm, attentive, rational and otherwise perfect, can even hope to begin to address across the board, much less lay his hands upon and heal.

And it is healing we want, really. Sure, we want all the other stuff – fixing the economy, wars, health care, jobs, racism, hatred, etc, all those things, but those of us who have been emotionally devastated by the horrors of the dual presidency of Bush/Cheyney want more. We need more. We need to believe that not all politicians are as self-serving and callous as the dreadful duo who are, mercifully, no longer able to trash the world as they blithely stumble over everyone and everything. We need this man to be more than anyone can ever ask anyone else to be. More than anyone else CAN be.

That’s something that scares me. But for today, I WILL let the feelings of hope, of admiration, and of love for this man, for Barack Obama and what he stands for to me, wash over me and heal me. Tomorrow, I’ll rein myself back in, put some of those disappointment deflectors back up again, but for today…

I can breathe again. And I am smiling.