You know… when I woke up this morning, I just… it genuinely felt like Christmas.

And I don’t like ceremonies. I don’t always love speeches.

But I did tune into Biden’s inauguration ceremony, today. I listened to those speeches, and those prayers, and those poems. This time around it was important.

I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of a café, in the sun. The wife sat across from me in her own vehicle, parked next to mine. We had the windows down. My car radio was loud enough for both of us.

We got $5 socially distant celebratory bread bowls, full of soup. And we listened.

I saw Obama fist bump Harris. I witnessed this moment in history. Her story.

I heard Biden’s call for unity. And I genuinely wanted to know how many times he said that word in the course of his speech, lol.

As I listened to Biden’s words, I was reminded of the apparent paradox of tolerance. How can a person practice tolerance for everybody, when the set that is everybody includes the incredibly intolerant?

I think of that meme with the white person with the guns and the c*nfederate flag and the sw*stika tattoos, standing next to the person of color with the turban or the blue hair or the pansexual flag or the tie-died jumper, and the caption that says “why can’t we all just be friends…”

I wonder how to honor a call for unity, if there’s a line in the sand that is so vast and old and impossible to cross.

It’s hard.

As I reflect on Biden’s words today, I realize the way that his words contrast with the sentiments of his predecessor.

I remember that the fundamental message, from the highest tier of authority, in one of the most powerful countries in the world, for four years, has been one of extreme hatred, rudeness, division, unkindness, bigotry, intolerance, and negligence.

And while that chapter is going to leave deep scars, it’s over, for right now. The hatred and corruption that 45 reflected and magnified existed before his time and will go on existing after it, but his time is done.

I feel comforted that the first words from this administration were words of kindness and hope and acceptance, of pattern recognition, and science, and reverence, and duty, and an understanding of the gravity of loss.

Fuck. I haven’t cried all day, but my eyes are welling up as I write this.

Hard to know where to begin, with unity.

Recognize the humanity in the people who are around you. Know that their fundamental worth is untouched by their actions and beliefs. No matter how abhorrent they might seem to you, no matter how objectively wrong they may have been or continue to be.

The person across from you had a mother, is capable of suffering, and is going to die one day, just like everybody else. Remember that, as you navigate the community of humans. Amoung family and strangers. In person and online.

It might not be unity, but it’s somewhere to begin. It’s a starting line.

The name of the poet at the inauguration ceremony today was Amanda Gorman. She is 22. This makes her one year older than I am.

I want to remember this. I was moved by her words.

I hope you felt this relief, today. And I love you.