It's over.

The American elections are finally finished, and I find myself satisfied -- yes, even joyful -- to be finished with the long race and now able to turn our collective attention to the future, with Barack Obama (for better, for worse) as the 44th President of the United States of America.

For those who were hoping for an Obama victory:  Congratulations.  Now stop gloating.  He's just a man.  He cannot single-handedly fix all the problems in our world.  He needs our support and prayer and respect -- but he does not need to be turned into some kind of Messiah.  Enjoy this moment for what it's worth, and then let's move on.

For those who might be disappointed by an Obama victory:  Sorry.  Now stop sulking.  He's just a man.  He cannot single-handedly "run America (or Western Civilization) into the ground."  He needs our support and prayer and respect -- he does not need to be turned into some kind of Antichrist.  Mourn the losses that you feel you need to mourn, and then let's move on.

Perhaps my words feel harsh and premature here.  But I feel blessed by a certain degree of disconnectedness from the goings-on in America.  The television networks offer a telling demonstration of the world situation.  American-based CNN (actually, CNN-International) has been covering the election non-stop for the last 24 hours -- and I imagine that it will continue to be the major news item for the entire day.  British broadcasteres (BBC-1, BBC-2, BBC-News), who are speaking to a public more historically tied-up in America's destiny and more closely related culturally and linguistically, seem to be more split in their coverage -- with the news channels of course tracking closely with the American election (though from a more emotionally-detached perspective, it seems) but the other channels breaking away when their normal news coverage ends.  But it's especially interesting to me to see how the Dutch broadcasters (NOS, RTL, etc.) definitely covered the American elections, and covered them thoroughly -- but they also covered other local and international news and then concluded their news coverage promptly at their regular times (with one network that I noticed adding on an extra 15 minutes for election coverage).  And now, already, television coverage is back to normal.  The Dutch are busy gettng back to life as usual.

I, for one, plan to do the same.  And I hope that the rest of the world will soon follow suit.