Causes for Celebration

Today, January 20th, is a historic day for our nation:

(Yes, I am a total geek to have taken a photograph of a television image, clearly.)

I cannot ever remember watching a presidential inauguration before, but I specifically worked from home today so I could watch this one. Which is also a big deal, since while I work from home a lot, I do not have the TV on while I’m working. I am excited about what electing Obama means to our country, but I’m more excited to see what the next four years bring. I know there aren’t going to be any magical changes – that would be unreasonable. I think more than anything, I’m excited because we’ve taken the first real step in fulfilling that cliche: anyone can be president. When my kids are voting in their first election, I hope we don’t even talk about the color of a candidate’s skin, gender or religion. That would be a real cause for celebration. Because we’d finally be looking at the content of a person’s character. Period.

But today is also a day of celebration in our home:

Today is Krystal’s 8th birthday, and she’s wearing her “Birthday Girl” button here in the car outside her school. I dropped her off today so I could help  bring in the box of snowman pretzels to share with her class. We did most of our celebrating yesterday, but she opened gifts from me at breakfast and there are more gifts here from my mother and step-mother for her to open tonight. I wasn’t there on the day of her birth – I didn’t even see her picture until her first birthday had already passsed. But a birthday gives us a chance to celebrate a person we love, to relish in their being here another year. I also think about Krystal’s birth mother, and wonder if she’s thinking of her missing daughter today.

So even if you don’t feel like celebrating anything presidential today, I invite you to celebrate Krystal’s birthday with us, wherever you may be!