My Imagination Dances with Joy

I had the oddest experience this week in regards to the national campaign.  I was watching Senator and Michelle Obama talking with Meredith Viera on the Today show; repeated many times on cable.  It was a compact little trio; Michelle, with her legs pulled up on the chair and her head down, as if to transmit,, “This is his interview, not mine.”  She did not have her face up and lit which stopped a question gracefully being addressed to her.  Meredith’s head facing them and, it appeared, they were sitting very, very close as we took the point of view from the back of her head. 
 
Senator Obama has on a pastel shirt and shiny tie.  He was talking low and quiet as I had never seen which was the outcome of not being in an arena, ball field, debate, deli, etc.  Curiously, Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the Bill Moyer’s Journal Friday, said this interview was the equivalent of Reagan’s TV commercial about his being, “just plain folks.”  Little Ronnie growing up and being one of us.  It was a conciliatory ad hoping to make scary warrior Ron Reagan seem like the kid in the next desk in fourth grade, the kid hitting a double at the game, a union guy; just a guy.

The interview drew me in as if I was pulling up a chair.  My 32” flat screen TV let me make the triangle a quartet.  My thoughts became like ones I have when in a conversation as opposed to watching TV.  And unexpectedly, I thought, “he is just a man in a tie.” 

I launched into an interesting interior conversation ~
        He is not just a guy, he is the first African American who may be president! 
        But you did not see a Black man you saw a man. 
        Of course I saw a Black man, it would be disrespectful to not see his race. 
        No, you spent decades longing for equality, not seeing race first is the point! 
        A Black man in the Whitehouse would make that even more possible for everyone. 
        How irresistible.    

I am glad I had this epiphany, a thought new and unexpected.  Does it hold truth?  It must be tested.  So I lived with it for a day and my love affair with electing Hillary Clinton has deepened even more.  Can you imagine?  But it is true.  Could you have a female president and just think it is natural?  Can we listen to a woman speak and not see a sex object to be dissected, rated, packaged? Not judge as mother, daughter, wife ~ or any value defined by association ~ standing on her own?  Not fall to religious stereotypes.  Not titter over shallow jokes or vicious pejoratives whose cutting edges have been diminished with usage. 

I swoon over the magic of a woman leader whose gender is seen as fine, refined, balanced and natural.  I was having a blast thinking of my brother sitting in front of his TV, listening to a female president and finding his mind lapsing (maybe for only a moment) that the president is a woman.   The cascading effects make me dance inside and out. 

Comments

[diane]

excellent post Zoe. And it got me gleefully daydreaming about the look on my William F. Buckley style republican father's face, when President Hilary, well into her second term, declares she is finally leaving Bill and coming out...

[Wendy Werris]

So very cogent, this. You made me realize that I do NOT see a black man when I observe Obama - race absolutely does not determine my perception of him, I simply do not like the man. However - when I look at Hillary I definitely do see a woman - because I am so consciously proud of what she has done and is doing and will continue to do . . . it is difficult to NOT be aware of her gender. Sexism is a much more profound issue in this country than racism!! She has beat those terrible odds to pave the way for many women that come after her. When she becomes president (and I believe she will), my sense is that her gender won't be the first thing I see about her - I will see her brilliance, her tenacity, her astute understanding of this country and immediate actions to remedy it from the day she takes office.

[cdowner@sbcglobal.net]

Thanks for the stream-of-consciousness reactions all have them-this campaign is so painful. The nation's sexism is on full display. On the other hand, Hillary is fighting is insuch a beautiful wa.How glorious! West Virginias just seemed to be saying "To Hell with the pundits. We love Hillary!" Keep it up, Zoe. I love it. Carol Downer.