Joyscrolling

[owlmoose]

I've heard a few people use this term, the opposite of doomscrolling. Reading through social media (mostly Twitter in my case) to see all the celebrations, the outpourings of happiness, the amazing memes. And that's what I've been up to, off and on all day: picking up my iPad and catching up on a few more pages of it, smiling, laughing, liking and sharing my favorite moments. (And occasionally rolling my eyes at a bad take, because, well, it is still Twitter. But even that I can take in stride today.)

When I saw the first news organization's tweet calling it (I believe it was NBC), shortly after I woke up this morning, I sucked in a breath of cleansing air and felt a giant weight lift from my shoulders. Then as there were more confirmations (AP, ABC, CNN, BBC...), tears came to my eyes. Real tears of literal relief that this is real, that Biden really is the president-elect, that Kamala Harris is the vice president-elect (a woman, in my lifetime, it's happening, it's finally happening, and not just any woman but one I can support and be proud of in that role).

I'm well aware that one election doesn't fix everything, that there's still so much work to do, that the fight might not even be over (I haven't forgotten Bush v. Gore, but this situation is different in several ways: the margin is so much wider, more states are involved, and the Democrats are fighting from a position of strength relative to Florida in 2000), but I am so glad that we've had a day to be happy and relieved and to celebrate. Take the wins where we can, get a moment to breathe, and be rejuvenated to come back tomorrow. Georgia Senate runoffs, here we come.