City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York, on the day after Election Day.

Usually, my Country Dreams refer to visions of what it would be like to not live in a big city. But today, I think that I will dream a bit about how my big country may evolve under the leadership of our newly elected President.

I was up very late last night watching the election reports both on television and on various web sites. It was quite thrilling to watch state after state, including some surprising states, fall into the Obama column. One of the surprising states was Virginia, where I was born long, long ago, and raised in a culture that would never have allowed Mr. Obama's candidacy, among other participations.

I cast my own vote late yesterday morning, and was fortunate not have had to wait at all. My polling place is in the cafeteria of a neighborhood school that hosts various election districts. The voting booths for the other districts all did seem to have lengthy queues, and that was wonderful to behold. Any time that there is a large turnout, everyone wins.

Having voted, I took a bus to mid-town, and met a friend for lunch. We had not seen each other in quite a long while, though we do continue to stay in touch. Our friendship goes back about 30 years, which is quite a while. It was grand to gobble our sandwiches, and talk, talk, talk. No one choked, even though we surely did a lot of laughing.

After that lunch, she had to return to work, and I walked home through Central Park. I hope that you will enjoy some of the views of the little pedicabs, various multi-colored trees, and some views of the aftermath of Sunday's marathon race.

The above picture is for a blogging pal, who loves trees.

Please note the tiny red balloons let in the tree on the path just ahead of where the marathon finish line was painted.

It is interesting to see that the same crews who helped set up all the apparratus for the marathon's finish line have to return to that scene of Sunday's glory on Tuesday to pack it all up again.

And that allows me to return to the election results. My friends and I are thrilled. Around midday, I went out to buy a "souvenir" copy of today's New York Times. No luck. Every newsstand for a mile or so along Broadway was totally sold out. This is a momentous day, and a day for celebrations.

Tomorrow will be a day to begin to get serious about what this change to our government can mean. I so hope that Mr. Obama will be able to continue to motivate the citizens of this country to be more than dreamers, to convince them to contribute to our country's future, in many ways. United we stand, divided we fall ... this can be more than an antique motto.

I have seen many elections, worked on many campaigns, seen hopes rise and fall. Often these past hopes seems to be tied to the fate of just one person, the President elect. Right now, we do seem to have the sense that something different has occurred. Each one of us can take on some responsibility in our own lives to carry this difference to many more tomorrows' worth of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

There are also many people who are not at all pleased with the election results, and some of them have begun their vocalizing. The challenge is to keep holding the positive attitudes and not be drawn into negative imagery. I think this time, we just might manage to make more of our dreams come true.

It is lovely to hear so much support of the election from overseas. Thanks to all. We really are all in this together.

May we all work hard and wisely, and dream well, and let's have great results.