Heading to canvassing headquarters last weekend, I walked with another volunteer who said she was so pumped up and excited about the prospects of this new day that she hadn’t slept well in weeks. We both laughed knowingly—it has indeed been difficult to focus on anything else as the possibility of this day loomed large, within grasp, but still elusive. Amid tears of deep joy, now it is real. One cannot help but reflect on the costs, the sacrifices that made it so, or the dream-like quality of its truth. It is a day to celebrate as never before.

We have not, however, reached the promised land. Perhaps it’s in distant view, but the journey toward its gates is still going to be difficult and arduous.

The nation that President Obama will govern is in shambles, the raw legacy of an Administration that has wreaked utter havoc and will continue to wreak till January 20th. Its reckless ways will linger for years to come. The financial crisis is deep and real, seeking to smother all the other persistent, chronic crises of decades of neglect and failed leadership that professed to care about the people, but sought only to protect the powerful. The new Administration and the new Congress will not be able to act quickly and resolutely on any of these harsh realities. There are no quick fixes ahead. The answers, the resolution, the end-all of pent-up demand for change does not lie in Washington with new promises and policies, but is scattered, waiting for voice across the land. Celebrate indeed. But realize that today our work begins anew.

This is the hard, slogging work of organizing that always lies before us as we seek to build community, justice, and equality with peoples who seldom seem to matter in Washington anyway. You know—the work that is said to have “no real responsibilities,” but that has been the strategic, experiential base of one of the most effective presidential campaigns ever run, and that must now be turned toward effecting the transformation of the nation. You know—the work that confronts racism and exploitation, the work that challenges oppression and poverty. The work of and with the people. The nuts and bolts of deep change that grows into waves that sweep the road ahead. The work on the ground. The work of true democracy.

Sing this day of the democratic spirit, of hope made real, of joy and promise! But commit this day to beginning our work anew, that the vision we build might indeed be made real even in our lifetime.