The train arrived in Washington today with our new president aboard. The daughter of a friend wants to drive from Albany NY to DC tomorrow just to be near the event. She is feeling the pull to be part of it. To be able to say, "I was there." Some estimates say that 4 million people are going to be coming there. Four million!!

Does anyone remember a time when the nation cared so much about a presidential inaguration? This is astounding. What must this be like for Barack Obama? Yeah, I know he did run for President, but yet, there must be a big difference between campaigning and actually winning. Actually moving into the White House. Actually being the Commander In Chief. In three days he will be the President, a real President.

He seems to be stepping more deeply into his new identity. At least when I have seen him speaking, he seems more authoritative than he did at times during the campaign.

A poll showed that 79% of us are optimistic that he can put our country back on track and are patient about it, realizing that it will take time. It will take years.

Monday is Martin Luther King Day and has been called a Day of Service. It seems like this will be the key to much of Obama's success, just as it was a key to the success of his campaign. People feel as though they are needed and want to serve. I am reading columns on the nobility of work and the responsibility of us all to serve one another. These are themes that haven't really been that visible in most of the mainstream media, but they are now.

Can we do it? Can he do it? Will this be the opportunity for our country to have another chance at becoming all we can be? Would it be right to look at this last period of time and the ensuing disasters as a sort of pruning that will ultimately give us a healthy and stable country that could find a new way to define prosperity rather than just greed and self interest?

I pray that it is so.