Didn’t they all look good this afternoon? The first lady elegant and beautiful, and the first daughters absolutely adorable, and the president quite dapper in his dark suit and red checkered tie. This is a first family that makes you smile just to look at them.

The expectations for President Obama’s inaugural address were absurdly high, but he did pretty well, considering. He kept it short and made some points, but most of all he took the right tone of a combination of conciliation with an unabashed rejection of past mistakes. It couldn’t have been easy for the former president to sit there and listen to what must have sounded to him like a total repudiation of his term. (Too bad for him.)

The new president also drove home the point that the answers to current problems won’t come easily, or quickly, or without some sacrifice. He boldly called on all Americans to give something back to the nation, just as John F. Kennedy did in a similar speech the year Obama was born. The hard work of putting things back together can begin, now that the history making is over.

This was a day for ceremony and celebration. The speech, the parade, the balls — it all made for a day filled with the joy of hope and anticipation. It’s a lot to live up to, but setting the sights high is the only way to achieve the best possible outcome. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had this much reason for optimism, and even longer since so many of us have felt like one nation, indivisible, ready and able to make it work.