Well, it caught my attention...

On my way to court this morning, I drove by a large fabric shop that was on the way. I wanted to get some of the Marcus Brothers Surf and Sand to have on hand for the long weekend. When I got there, it was closed, shut down, out of business. A Neiman Marcus is being put in its place. That is just wrong.

I called around to other quilt shops and found one that had my fabric about 20 minutes from the court house. I swung by there, grabbed some Korean food next door (I have NO idea what it was – it had rice and seafood in it – quite good) then dashed off to court. When I got out, I turned on the radio and heard that John McCain has selected the female governor of Alaska as his running mate.

I can’t say that I am shocked that he picked a woman. I can’t even say that I am surprised he chose a woman. What does surprise me - what shocks me - is that she is a mother of five (FIVE!), including one with Down’s syndrome. I thought about pulling over the car to catch my breath.

I have never bought into the excitement of having a woman on the presidential ticket. This is probably because I have no doubt that it will happen, even the top spot, sooner or later. I expect to see it in my lifetime. No, what surprised me – what stunned me – was that he selected a woman who clearly wasn’t forced to give up the full blown mommy track in the name of political ambition.

I know next to nothing about her. How did she do that? Did she abandon her children, emotionally, to do this? Is she a supermom? Did she have tons of help? I look forward to finding out more about her.

Because I believe that a woman will eventually occupy the presidency, perhaps I am less inclined to settle for “any” woman. All that being said, while I am skeptical by nature and want to know more about her before I form an opinion of her, I confess that I felt an absolute thrill that a woman could reach for this position and not have to neuter herself to do it.

Now, I know that Hillary Clinton is a mother and that she adores her daughter. I also believe she has tried to be a very good mother. The difference is that Hillary has been in the spotlight and had a nanny for her daughter straight out of the box. And she only had one child. How she raised her child bears little resemblance to how I raised my own. It is hard for me to relate to her as a mother beyond the understanding that both of us would die for our child and would consider outliving them to be a fate worse than death. But the process of raising them, the dynamics in the household, I suspect, were quite different.

I wonder if the Alaska Governor raised her children similarly to how I raised mine. The fact that she had five children suggests to me that her household had to have been as chaotic as my own from time to time. The fact that she succeeded in achieving all she has suggests to me that it wasn't nearly as chaotic as mine for any length of time. Questions, questions.

photo - Baby Evelyn