Responsibility

McCain's concession speech was the essence of grace and class. I wish we'd seen more of the traditional McCain dignity during the campaign. The crowd was as classless as he was gracious.

Obama's speech was stirring but humble. Shades of Douglass, Lincoln, and King. Like the cheering crowds all around Atlanta and Chicago and New York, I'm ecstatic, but I'm glad Barry's sober. We have a lot of work to do.

Okay, normal hockey operations will resume tomorrow.

At last we were masters of our heads,

masters of the city,

masters of our shadows

and our equinox.

Someone fired a shot to celebrate,

but only the kind with a cork

tied to a string.

And then we opened the cages

And ferrets ran out.

Out of the skull ran brown and white

spotted rats.

Out of the heart flew

blood-soaked cuckoos.

Out of the lungs

a condor rose, croaking with rage

because of the way his plumes had been squashed

in the bronchi. 

Even a panther showed up,

on the loose from an obsolete circus,

starved, ready to eat

even the Emperor Claudius.

You could hear squeaks in the streets-

the groans and shouts

of expiring fiends. 

And at last we were masters

of our new moon. 

But we couldn't step out

 of our doorways;

someone might cast

a spell on us.

We might even 

be responsible 

for ourselves. 

- Miroslav Holub, "At Last"