On another level, you may find you feel gratitude for the achievements of heroes in your life, figures whose contributions make your dreams more possible and your possibilities more broad.
This leaves Americans to contemplate two possibilities more alarming than debt-ceiling brinkmanship.
"We should have explored the possibilities more," says Dirk Niebel, general secretary of the FDP.
But perhaps in no country are the perils, as well as the possibilities, more apparent than in Iraq.
During the next two weeks, there will be hiring possibilities more complex than the N.C.A.A. tournament seedings.
This election had been different for these people, its possibilities more encouraging, and now its outcome more troubling and dangerous.
"It's very sad to say," says Diarra, "but poor families tend to send their kids to public schools and, of course, rich families prefer to send their children to private schools, where maybe it's better organised and with more possibilities, more materials and so on".
This has set up a kind of Flag-vs.-Cross showdown, with Mr. McCain building a surprising lead in state polls — for what they're worth in a year when voters seem to be rummaging through the G.O.P. possibilities, more than settling on one.
