Now what.

The various elections ended as I thought they would, and now we all wait to see what happens next. Some people are giddy at the prospect of a sea-change in America's culture and daily life. Others are fearful of the same thing.

Once the celebrities go back to their surreality, the thrill of making history is past, and talking heads have chewed the election results to tatters, Americans will get down to the business of life as usual, though perhaps not quite as usual as it might have been.

I hope that . . .

• the new president will be a role model for choosing education and service over self-indulgence and defeatism.
• the new president won't follow through on his idea to put citizen soldiers into the communities to police their fellow people (that really smacks of an oppressive regime, doesn't it?).
• the new president will surround himself with many voices and many philosophies, choosing pragmatism over ideology.
• the economy recovers far more quickly than the last depression (yeah, we're in one).
  
• the world thinks better of us than they have in a long time.
• we think better of us than we have in a long time.