Inauguration Day

I had a nice day off on Monday.  My wife and I took the day off to watch all of the inauguration festivities. I love pageantry, pomp, and circumstance, whether it be a presidential inauguration, a royal wedding, or a papal funeral. I remember my wife and I getting up in the middle of the night to watch the funeral of Princess Diana. With modern communications one can easily feel a part of such events. On Monday, after sleeping in a bit, my wife and I got out of bed, made some breakfast, and then planted ourselves in front of the television and we watched everything that happened in Washington. I would have watched it no matter who won the election but it’s always better when it’s your guy standing there. I am an emotional person and I found myself a little teary eyed at times. I felt proud to be an American and I felt one with all the diversity found in the crowd of nearly one million people standing on the Mall in front of the capital building. I also enjoyed the fact that Monday's inauguration took place on Martin Luther King Day. He is a very real person to me because I grew up in the civil rights era and I remember his famous speeches and untimely death. There are still many problems in our country but we have also come very far from the kind of society and culture we had in the 1950’s and 60’s.