Breathing exercises

Let us collectively exhale.

And when I say “us”, I mean the entire world. We have a President who understands that we are part of a global network of nations; who doesn’t act out his every whim and doesn’t care whom he labels with pre-teen disparagements; who knows how to govern; who has promised to be the President for all Americans, not just the ones (81 million though we be) who voted for him.

We have a Vice President who brings the perspective of the 51% of us who are female, the 13% of us who are Black, the 6% of us who are Asian and the 12% of us who are Californian. There are no flies on this woman.

They understand—as much as individuals can—the challenges that face us in the miasma left by the Chaos Monkey, and they are ready to do the necessary to control the pandemic, bring aid to the economically devastated, rebuild our alliances across the globe, restore humanity to our government and serve justice.

I can tell this from the Inauguration they staged yesterday, which was utterly devoid of bombast and bloviation, but which abounded in purpose and, I believe, joy. I was ugly-crying starting with the firefighter signing the Pledge of Allegiance. The choice of Amanda Gorman as the inauguration poet was absolutely spot on. And Biden's address was precisely what the nation and the world needed to hear.

That’s what we’ve been missing—joy.

So together now: breathe in, breathe out and feel joy.