Post-Inauguration Insights

I'm blurry as I write this, after a day of goodbyes and departures as family heads home from the events of Tuesday, January 20, 2008.

I was down on the National Mall, in the thick of it. Freezing temperatures, overflow crowds, hours waiting, whatever. Didn't matter. It was history, and I wanted, NEEDED, to be present, even if I could barely see the West Front of the Capitol far off in the distance. I would have been there even without the huge Jumbotron screens placed strategically along the Mall.

As I've written before, on election night, my son sent me a text saying "I love this country." And as I looked at my cellphone, I realized that for the first time, as an African American woman who has spent a lifetime loving this country, I truly felt as though my country loved me back. That my skin color no longer qualified my country's love for me. Or my children.

The fact that I got to experience the inauguration on the Mall with my son and daughter and sister on either side made the moment that much more sweet.

I've never been in a crowd that large. I've never been a part of a crowd all focused so intensely on one moment, on one sentiment, on one collective feeling.

That afternoon, after hours of fighting the crowds and the cold to make our way back home, I called a childhood friend who had watched the days' events in her home in the midwest. Julie was bursting with excitment about what she'd seen during her channel surfing, and all the conversations she'd had and observations she'd shared. She even told people about me and my family braving the cold on the Mall.

Did I mention that Julie was home alone all day? And that she had warned people not to call or interrupt her on Tuesday?

My friend's viewing community was made up of people on Twitter. She was connected to people all over the world, tweeting and responding to each other.

Personally, I hungered for the chance to see and feel the reactions of the people surrounding me. The tactile experience of numb toes and chapped cheeks just added to my sense memory of the event.

If Julie had been in Washington Tuesday, we probably would have gone to the Mall together. Yet she was happy and elated to share her inaugural experience electronically through her international network of acquaintances and strangers.

As it happens, Julie is developing into a kind of expert on social media and its applications. She gives presentations to organizations seeking to reach new audiences. She "gets" it, and more importantly, she understands that people may chose diverse ways to take in information or experience the world.

The more Julie and I shared our views of the day, I realized I was hearing the difference between contact and solitude, between the effort of being around people on a regular basis and the satisfaction of being on your own. Julie has insight into a whole universe of people who adapt to new technologies precisely because they chose a variety of ways to interact with other people, within their comfort levels.

We each found our own way to experience and celebrate the inauguration. The right way.