Eloquent in her own right and every bit as intelligent as her husband, Michelle Obama impressed me once again with her convention speech last week. I had heard this speech before in a folksier, more free-flowing format. This time the speech was more pointed, focused, refined. But this time was for an audience of millions. When I heard it last, it was for an audience of about forty...yes, forty.
I was fortunate to meet Michelle Obama in late 2007 before the Iowa caucuses. she spoke to a small gathering in my hometown high school library where I once attended classes and now my oldest son does. My husband and I planned to go listen to Michelle speak while leavign our 10 and 7 year old sons at home with our teenagers. Our seven year old, however, had other ideas...he wanted to come, too!
Somsehow, we wound up in the front row, dead center in front of the podium, not six or seven feet away from Michelle. She spoke of her upbringing, her parents, meeting Barack, balancing work and family, raising children, nad the need for us all to feel that connection with one another that seems to have all but disappeared in this country. I was enthralled.
My seven year old? Not so much! He squirmed, he leaned on me, he whispered to me. And as Michelle talked, her eyes kept returning over and over to my son. But she showed no irritation, never missed a beat, even smiled at him and at me. With those glances and those smiles, she told me she is a mom first and foremost, that she loved me and my son because we were just like her and her children.
After several glances and several smiles in our direction, my husband leaned over and whispered to me, "When she is done speaking, we are in for a high-visibility moment."
Sure enough, at the end of her speech, Michelle started making her way down the line of people, shaking hands and making conversation. But when she got to my husband, she grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "You will have to wait a moment." Then she crouched down in front of my son, took him by the hands, looked him in the eyes and told him what a patient boy he had been and that he was so good. She asked him how old he was and how did he like school. She told him she had a little girl just his age. Then she said goodbye to him, greeted my husband and me, and moved on down the line.
I fell in love with her at that moment. Not only did she treat every adult in that person as a worthy being, but she treated my son with love and respect.
I don't know that my son understood that he had just met possibly the next First Lady. But he was struck by her kindness. Later he asked me, "When can we have that nice lady's little girl over to play?" What's not to love about Michelle Obama?
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