When I went for a run a few hours after Joe Biden received the number of electoral votes to be named the 46th President of the United States, it felt surreal after an election week unlike any other. The weather was unseasonably gorgeous. On the streets in the neighborhood I was running through (on the way to a trail around a reservoir) there were all kinds of people out: individuals, couples, families—adorned with every expression of diversity.

Later that evening I was with my running crew, our small group socially distant from each other, around a fire in my friend’s backyard, watching Vice President-elect Kamala Harris deliver her acceptance speech on an outdoor movie projector. I’m sure they were thinking of their daughters as I thought about my niece, when Harris said: “…While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourself in a way that others may not see you, simply because they've never seen it before.”

Afterwards, Harris introduced President-elect Biden, and called upon all of us to collaborate with them to “unite our country and heal the soul of our nation,” acknowledging the fact that “the road ahead will not be easy. But America is ready. And so are Joe and I.”

Then Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own” started to play. The song begins from the perspective of the one who is: “Knocking on the door that holds the throne/looking for the map that leads [them] home/stumbling on good hearts turned to stone, [as] the road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone.”

Then the song asks: “Where’re the eyes, the eyes with the will to see? Where’re the hearts that run over with mercy? Where’s the love that has not forsaken me? Where’s the work that’ll set my hands, my soul free? Where’s the spirit that’ll reign over me? Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea?”

As if in answer to those haunting questions, out comes running the 46th President of the United States. And I have to say, what a mighty fine stride for a seventy-seven-year-old man wearing a suit and dress shoes. It was inspiring.

In last week’s column we asked whether our better angels could prevail at such a critical moment in our nation’s history. St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians seemed to provide us with an answer. President-elect Biden also offered an answer: “our nation is shaped by the constant battle between our better angels and darkest impulses. It is time for our better angels to prevail.” He nodded to Sirach, the sage from the Book of Ecclesiastes, urging that now is “the time to heal in America.” And then turning to all of us, he said that “together—on eagle’s wings—we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do. With full hearts and steady hands, with faith in America and in each other, with a love of country — and a thirst for justice — let us be the nation that we know we can be.”