Michele Obama Conquers Earth!
I think I was working out when I felt the earth move. Not in the sense that Hemingway meant it. It was more like a quiet catch of cosmological breath.
Whoosh. And it was gone. After my work out I went to the Web to see if I could find out what happened. I found it immediately.
Michele Obama touched the Queen of England.
Touched her! Don’t let the off-the-Richter-scale-significance of this pass by you. The world has revolved for hundreds of years with a royal hands-off policy. With one slow, gentle sweep of the hand, Michele Obama changed all that. She put her arm around the queen’s back as if the queen were a person!
Many reporters and commentators asked (and I think sincerely) what the world was coming to. Here’s Anderson Cooper trying to get at the bottom of all this.
Actually I find a First Lady treating a queen like a person pretty refreshing.
This act has solidified Michele Obama as an international star, an icon, more popular than Madonna. On the international stage she’s more popular than her husband. Even CNN’s Jack Cafferty asked asked what’s behind her rocket to international stardom.
For a moment it all this helps you forget that people are dying courtesy of genocide, the fact that we’re still in Iraq and the economy’s lower than a snail’s belly in a sand pit.
That’s okay. God knows we need good news. I like the image of a First Lady working the soil to plant a garden in the White House. I nod at the picture of her ladling out food in a soup kitchen for the homeless. I stop for a moment to wonder why the guy in line is taking a picture of her with his cell phone. If he’s homeless how does he have a cell phone and where does his carrier send the monthly bill?
Maybe he “borrowed” it for the occasion. Hey, how many times is a homeless guy going to get served a meal by the First Lady?
Anyway, Mrs. Obama’s royal touch made her queen for a day. When the English get their composure back we can move on and wait for the next news making move from the First Lady.
Bottom line is that it’s better for all of us to watch Michele and the queen in a touching moment than watching a president duck flying shoes.