“Show up, dive in, stay at it”

Well, today was scary. But that’s for tomorrow.

Let’s take the evening to celebrate Obama’s final address. Once more, he inspired us as only he can. I’m still so grateful I got to finish growing up under Obama. Today, his words reminded me to appreciate my old D.C. community not only for their friendship, but for their service — to agencies including Housing and Urban Development, State, and the EPA.

There’s a lot that I want to remember about this evening, which is why I couldn’t pick between two favorite videos.

The first is Christopher Jackson and Lin Manuel Miranda’s performance of “One Last Time” at the White House, because it makes the point that politicians and government officials sometimes do make nobel choices. Our democracy is stronger when we believe that many of them are in fact people with the capacity to make choices based on honor and selflessness — deserving of our admiration rather than derision.

If we have no faith, the danger is that we’ll give up on participating.

And as Obama said tonight: “Whether you are young or young at heart, I have one more thing to ask of you as president… I’m asking you to believe, not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.”

Finally, those musical moments. Man, hearing those opening bars of “City of Blinding Lights,” and knowing, after hearing it so many times in 2016, that this would be the last time…

But it’s like Bruce sang as Obama walked away from the podium, “Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine, And all this darkness past.”