A change has come to the world. Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th president of the United States has ushered in a new age.
Exactly what this means is difficult to define and where we are headed is uncertain. What is clear is that a seismic shift in history is under way and riding on it are our highest hopes.
Driving our expectations are a series of global crises, foremost among them the financial meltdown, climate change and terrorism. Mr Obama is taking office promising to deal with each.
He has no top-level leadership experience and we have nothing but his rhetoric and high-profile cabinet choices to assure us.
But there is no getting away from it - he is a breath of fresh air.
None of his predecessors in the past few decades has taken office amid so much hoopla. Some 79 per cent of respondents to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll were optimistic about the Obama presidency; 2 million people turned out in Washington to celebrate his swearing in. Never before has that happened.
There is good reason for the euphoria. Mr Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters are the first African-American family to occupy the White House. Racial barriers have come down, although they have not been shattered.