I believe that I have watched every inauguration that featured a transition between presidents in my lifetime. (Okay, my memory’s fuzzy on 1977, but I was less than a year old then.) I’m sure that I didn’t catch Bush in 2005, but I remember watching him in 2001. Although my interest in politics has certainly waxed and waned over the years — to be honest, I feel it waning now — there is something about these transitions of power that I guess I feel obliged to watch. Obviously, this inauguration was more special than any of the ones that came before, with the historical significance of this one magnified for this family by the fact that Dad didn’t quite live long enough to see this moment. Even though Dad got disillusioned by politics after Walter Mondale got blown out of the water in 1984, I believe that he would have taken great pride in what happened today. I never asked him if he thought that we would break the colour or gender barriers in the presidency in his lifetime, but I suspect that his pessimism when it came to politics would have caused him to say no. This would be one instance, though, when he would have been glad to have been proven wrong.

Although I caught most of today’s proceedings up here in my room, I did go downstairs to watch the pivotal moments with the rest of the family. I never had the crying jags that I had on election night (and later watching clips of that night’s celebrations on YouTube), I did tear up a few times; Mom got emotional seeing a lot of old faces there, including Ted Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Aretha Franklin, and Itzhak Perlman. It seemed like for all of us, our normal business got put on hold for the whole day, as we watched the inauguration festivities and talked about what will happen in the next four, possibly eight, years.

I did not vote for Obama; long before he secured the Democratic nomination, I knew that his opinions and worldview were too different from mine, particularly compared to more progressive candidates like Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia McKinney. I was worried that the progressive rhetoric we heard from him early on would soon give way to the same stultifying Democratic centrism I’ve seen from my teenage years and the rise of the Democratic Leadership Council, and so far, given how he’s pulled back on topics from drilling to prosecuting the last administration for war crimes, I fear that I am bring proven right. Unlike with our last president, though, I can look at President Obama — there is still something surreal for me in using that phrase — and believe that he is, deep down, a decent man who truly wants nothing but the best for each and every person in this country he now leads. I can only hope that in the weeks, months, and years ahead, he will prove my fears wrong.