Post election, after that sweet moment the polls closed on the west coast and CNN called the election for Obama at 10 p.m. central time on the dot, before they even released the results of California, Oregon and Washington, I’ve been wandering around trying to make sure it’s really true. Everyone says it is, but part of me still doesn’t believe it.
It’s sinking in slowly: we have the black Kennedy’s moving into the house we all own in a couple of months.
Not the Kennedy’s, exactly. Our future first lady has no problem giving her husband, the future leader of the free world, a little bit of grief on national TV. Watching the interview on 60 Minutes tonight, I got the distinct impression that it hasn’t been just his grandmother, Toot, who kept him grounded. Michelle Obama keeps her husband in line all the time.
Not that I think he minds.
I know a little about someone making me want to be a better person. And not just for myself. To include other people in ways that we can. Giving money to local charities rather than buying Christmas presents that people don’t really need or even want.
Michelle Obama is the power behind the throne. Not that she dictates policy or even gets involved enough to express an opinion. Not that she doesn’t have one. I’m sure she does.
Her power comes from a deeper place.
She makes our future president want to be better than he might have been, otherwise. Not because she brow-beats him, but because he wants to be her hero. And his kids’ hero. He wants a better world for his family than he had himself.
He created his life out of nothing with a strong woman standing by, letting him do what he needed to do to live his dream.
Daddy worked long hours, taking as much overtime as he could stand, to make sure we had a better life. I don’t know if that was his dream or not, but I think he was proud in the end. He raised a family, and then another. He was a parent from the time my older sister was born in 1963 until he died last year. 45 years of being a parent to children.
That in itself is remarkable.
Heroic, some would say.
The Obama family is not too different from a lot of others around the world.
Including mine.
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