Under the Blue Light

Forgive my sentimentality.

No matter your political party, no matter who you are or where you come from, you must agree that last night we made and lived history. Yesterday will be a story we tell our children. My friends and I watched the coverage on television for hours. When the Obama and Biden families stepped on stage in Chicago to greet their supporters, a soaring musical score playing in the background, one of my friends commented that it was like watching a movie with a happy ending. It was, someone else said, like a fairytale. And as Barack Obama walked off stage, I swear I saw him grab one of the American flags standing by the exit, and he let the stars and stripes run through his fingers. That, for me, was a moment better than fiction, because if it had been fiction I probably wouldn't have believed it. But, of course, that's why we read and write fiction (and poetry too), for those moments that surprise us and change us and haunt us, for the moments--big and small--that render us breathless.

--Chad