Election night '08 at Lincoln's knee — photo by Matt Mendelsohn

At the gentle nudging of T, I have crawled out of the internet rabbit hole of online polls, political blogs and photo slideshows of President-elect Obama to bring you this artifact. I’m still coming to terms with the new reality of a having a leader who has a grasp and understanding of reality as well as a vision of how to achieve the ideals set forth at the founding of America.

Jill, I’ve been thinking about your last post and wondering how much the political climate of the last eight years has contributed to the bipolar swings between maudlin emotionality and nonchalant banality in the dance community. I’m too close to it all to have any perspective. As of Nov. 4th, I can say that I feel like I’ve emerged into the bright daylight of possibilities from spending eight dark years in some strange haunted house of horrors where my perceptions were thwarted at every turn. The Rove-Cheney-Bush theatre of the absurd and their confederacy of dunces are in their final weeks as headliners and I am so relieved.

I laughed, I cried, it was worse than Cats.

I’m also curious to see what the next four or (hopefully!) eight years will bring for our community, our nation and the world. I wonder how we artists will respond.