elections.

I can honestly say for the first time in my life that there is some hope for our country. It sounds dramatic but a lot of other people seem to agree. The map is blue blue blue but all of our blues have turned transparent, melting into the landscapes of screaming trees, rooted legs on soil ravaged by industry but mouths fertilizing the ground we walk on with words that are full of the seeds of change.

It is going to take a lot of harvesting and planting and probably some losses but once we figure out the perfect mix of hope and love and ferocity and resilliance, we will see the all of the good things inside of us come crawling out of our skin to bask in the warm glow of brighter days. For the first time in my life, I am actually entertaining the notion that you can make something in this country that is not hurting something else in the process. That you can mend the most complicated, irrational and selfish problems by just widening your state of mind.

There seems to be a collective grin spreading across the faces of everyone in the world. It is like a patchwork quilt with a million differently-coloured, differently-shaped lips of everyone who thinks that great progress is possible. Lips that have spoken both loving and hateful words in varied tones and in different languages, and that have framed kisses, debates, cigarettes, bubble wands and harmonicas. Lips that have been punched or cracked in the cold winters of hard times but also mended, each time stronger than they were before and less likely to break. Change is going to depend on what we do with them. The patchwork smile quilt will inevitably fade in and out, and parts will break off when the owners of these lips decide to keep them shut and away from others. Silence will break us, but the harshness of our rhetoric can also distance us. But this is something we will have to overcome. The continuous line of joy will not last forever; but instead permeate the borders we have drawn between us and shine like stars in the night. It will blink and fade out and some of its sections will droop with disapproval, but this is okay. Because as long as there are people in this world, there will be changes to make, and as long as we are able to speak our minds we will at least have the opportunity to come closer to the sublime unity we all seemed to feel last night. We need to remember that this isn't over, it's just beginning. This is the first chance in a long time that we have to make things right - let's not rely on scathing and ignorant remarks to make our cases known. Instead, let's take advantage of the sheer breadth of the space we have to grow, and make an effort to listen to others as much as we'd like them to listen to us. The world is a big place, but we, with the help of selfish politicians, have narrowed it down to two sections divided by a river of false assumptions and mental waste. This line is our own unwillingness to compromise. It is all of the things we assume to be true but do not take the time to research. We can't even see our own reflections when we look at ourselves, it seems - just the people we have let ourselves become.

We have room to celebrate, but let's not forget all of those who are alienated by state policies banning gay marriage. By the people who are still the brunt of age-old jokes about race and class, about where they come from and how they see the world. Some tv news anchor claimed that yes, we are "past" race in this country. We're done with this presidential race, but that's the only thing I can see that correlates with that statement. We still have a long way to go.

I'm grateful to have spent last night with people that I love and care about, and to watch history unfold... as corny as it sounds. But again, this is not over yet - it's only beginning. We have a reason now for trying a little bit harder, but that will mean that the responsibility is ours, too. Are we ready for that kind of change?