Tuesdays

Tuesday. Such an ordinary day. Nothing special. Tuesday doesn’t get a cute nickname. Not Hump Day. Not Manic Monday or Freaky Friday. Even Thursday has Thanksgiving to up its street cred. Poor Tuesday. A Plain Jane of a day.

But sometimes events can make the day stand out. The Bacon Brothers have a wonderful song, “Tuesday.” It tells the story of a husband falling apart when his wife leaves him on what was supposed to be just another day. A Tuesday. A day meant for the mundane: music lessons, dentist visits and baseball practice.

September 11 was a Tuesday, as we all remember. A beautiful day, sunny and bright, until the sky was turned dark by terrorists. A terrible Tuesday. A Tuesday that is forever remembered as September Eleventh.

Tuesday was chosen as our Election Day, just because nothing happens on a Tuesday. It was a day people of the nineteenth century could afford to give up. So we vote, and we swear in our new Presidents on Tuesday.

Voting seems like a mundane thing to do. Indeed, so mundane that many people don’t bother. But as Dianne Feinstein reminded us yesterday, voting is why the United States has an unmatched record for changing power peacefully. Forty-four times. On a Tuesday.

Yesterday was such a Tuesday. In no way was it an ordinary day. The inauguration of President Barack Obama. The day that a man of compassion, generosity and intelligence has reached the highest office an American can hold. An inspirational speaker who calls on us to choose hope, not fear. Who reminds us that mundane things like values, hard work and love can change things.

And so an ordinary man becomes extraordinary. And an ordinary Tuesday becomes the beginning of something great.