Family Values, A Snapshot in Time
13 August 2008 12:22 pm by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
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| via Philadelphia Daily News |
It seems to me that considering what we ask of our politicians these days,
the endless campaigning, fundraising and moralizing, including trying to out
faith one another, which will happen again this Saturday as Rick Warren holds political court, one thing should be clear by now, especially with John and Elizabeth Edwards as backdrop. Using family as a poster for political morality
doesn’t mean a thing. However, when a politician and presidential nominee has
the personal internal compass to take some time off with his family in a month
normally reserved for family holidays, regardless of the chatter, grabbing private
moments with them says something about the family values others simply claim
as a slogan. Then when that same person isn’t seduced by the blathering
classes to cancel that vacation to appear presidential in the face of a crisis
he can can do nothing about, it reveals something else. A quiet, steady resolve
and commitment in remaining grounded in the one area that can be an anchor in
a field of endeavor where so many are seduced by ego. Not that running for president
doesn’t require hubris always at the ready. But the tug of Obama’s family calling
him in the middle of his quest reveals something inherently charming and grounding
about the priorities of this man.
Thank the gods there are photos. They say more about “family values”
than the coalition harping about them day in and day out. It reveals something
ordinary about a man that his adversaries are trying mightily to keep hidden.
Children learn not by what parents say, but what they actually do. You can
tell your kids they’re important, but if you aren’t present it sends a louder
message. So, in the middle of a heated presidential campaign, Obama and his
two beautiful girls, along with his gorgeous wife, slipped away in full public
view to take a family holiday, because it’s what families do together. It’s
also how they stay together. Sending a message that Obama knows who keeps him
grounded and his feet firmly planted on earth and it isn’t the people pimping
his public persona. Amidst the paparazzi presidential race that keeps him floating
above terra firma, Obama is grounded in his girls.
Family brings us down to earth. They humble. Thet also remind us of what matters
when the lights are off, the strangers snapping shots are gone, and everything
is back to normal. The problem with people like the Edwardses, the latest celebrity political couple whose aura has come crashing down to earth, is many of these people don’t know from “normal.”
They can’t live without the noise, which eventually becomes a personal disease dooming all.
Walking on the beach with his two girls as Georgia and Russia come into collision,
Barack Obama is sending a message. He can’t fix what George W. Bush screwed
up. He’s got to be the president first. But in end, he will always be a father
and a husband, a role Barack Obama obviously takes very seriously, regardless of the Democratic hangwringers who want him to ignore the man who also requires a respite from the political klieg lights. Relaxation and rejuvenation is important, too.
