And the word is…

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

So, since election day I’ve been searching for a single word to encompass the feelings  I’ll have on the day in which Barack Obama will be inaugurated.

It’s a word that has to connote joy and wonder and the adrenaline charged exhilaration of escape (from the politics of the last eight years) and anticipation and triumph and, well, BOTH “the kit” AND “the kaboodle”.

I considered whether this word also had to indicate the worry of the immense task to come and the silent fears that no man or woman could possibly live up to the hype of CHANGE and NEW and NEVER SEEN  BEFORE; or that somewhere in my word there had to be an indication that I knew that not all (or even MOST) of my dreams for America will be accomplished during this administration (or even in my lifetime).

But then I decided… no… there would be hundreds upon hundreds of days for nuance and shading, Inauguration Day can be about release and fireworks and flying doves and balloons and… sure… hope.

So then, this weekend, my wife and I take the kids to Big Bear, California to both get away and to remind them that not its not 73 degrees and sunny with a 85% chance of lung-debilitating pollution.

And during our weekend we wear wooly clothes and drink hot chocolate and but cheep $12 sleds that we hurtle down hills toward unforgiving tree trunks and then we decide to go… “tubing”.

Y’know, big hill… inner tubes… get on your belly and slide down head first screaming all the way.

Well, we take the little snescalater (snow+escalator) to the top of the mini-mountain and upon getting ready for our first run of the day, my son, four year-old Truman, takes one wide-eyed look at the adrenaline rush before him and starts doing this hoppity-skipity dance that is the childhood version of whatever you call what Angus Young of ACDC does when he plays the guitar.

And what comes out of his mouth?

Oh, YIPPIDEE-SPLEE!

And that’s the word:

Look it up in the dictionary and put my photo to the right.

What will Jeffrey Lieber be feeling January 20th, 2008?

Oh… YIPIDEE-SPLEE!