To my family, the morning after

Indian summer, from a bare back porch.

This morning, I did two things. Clean the house. Ride my bike.

While I cleaned, I thought of the family I came from and grew into. Our diverse ideas. The choices we make. I considered how the events of the past 24 hours would be met by each of us.

I was moved by John McCain's concession speech, especially his call to come together for the sake of the country.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited... I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.
-- John McCain 11.4.08

Like a good family. Like my family, where love is stronger than differences. But I wonder if Senator McCain was calling for more than live-and-let-live. He seems to consider the problems of our time too big for only half a population to manage.

Then I rode my bike to Forest Hills Park, the wild old Rockefeller estate on a bluff overlooking Cleveland. I never know whose path I'll cross over there. Strangers by foot, by bike, with and without dogs, with and without companions, accents, ipods, canes. Just about always with smile. A goodly number of geese surround a small lake I can picture the Rockefeller family picnicking by on a day like this. Now it's here for the common folk, clearing our minds the day after the first black family is invited to live in the great white house.

I want to do my part to mend what's broken in the world. I don't know what this will mean, but I thank John and Barack for taking the high road last night. I think this is the one we'll need to take now. I thank them for the leadership. And you, for inspiration.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
-- Barack Obama 3.18.08

photo acaben (cc-by-sa-2.0)