Barack Obama and this new day

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
--Melody Beattie

"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress...To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too."
--Barack Obama

Yes, Barack Obama and his brilliant campaign transcended the Clinton machine, the petty, smear campaign of John McCain and Sarah Palin to become the 44th president of this great nation.

Yes, he won because his opponent's campaign lacked a solid organization on the ground and a strong, consistent and believable theme, and because Obama had a well-run, younger and more committed staffers and volunteers on the ground and a theme of change that America could believe in and-- after eight years of war and economic decline-- was yearning for.

And, yes, Obama won because, while his opponent was dull and fear-mongering, he was motivating, inspiring and transformative. But today, the daddy is feeling something beyond excitement for Obamas' and America's success. He's feeling something else, something he thinks everyone should feel after a hard-fought battle, victory or defeat: Gratitude, reflection and humility.

Gratitude to opponent Hillary Clinton and John McCain for pushing Obama, challenging him to be the best presidential candidate he could be and to his campaign staff to be the best support persons they could be. Gratitude especially to Hillary Clinton who, in bringing up or embracing criticism of Obama as inexperienced or as displaying poor judgment by staying in Rev. Wright's church, made those issues basically irrelevant after the primaries, giving McCain no real "October surprise" or smear material worth noting.

Humility before his Creator and his people, the American people, for giving Obama not only the vote to become president of their country, but demonstrating their faith in him and his administration to steer it through its worse economic crisis since the depression.

Reflecting on the historic nature of this presidential campaign. This was a campaign where John McCain's so-called "Straight Talk Express" bus with its reactionary, union-busting "Reagan Revolution" rhetoric of small government and low taxes for the richest Americans ran off the road and out of gas; where a woman candidate came close to becoming the next president; where an African American, the son of a Kenyan father and Kansas white woman, became the 44th president of the United States of America.

In a country of hard workers, status seekers and job climbers too busy for breakfast and, often-times, family dinner, the daddy believes that this day of reflection, humility, and gratitude about this new day, about what we can do to make America better, about how we can best support our new president to ensure his success and to make America even greater, is in order.

What about you? Are you too busy to show gratitude and humility? Are you too busy to reflect or meditate?