Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Twelve Days: It Must Be Love

One of my favorite comments from when Boy#1 and the Lovely Girl became Facebook Official was left by a mutual friend from their days at a liberal arts college. That friend had worked with Boy#1 on a political campaign, and I don't remember the exact wording of the comment (and am too lazy to go back and look it up) but it was something like this:

"Somehow, I can't help thinking our side just lost one."

I laughed out loud.

For all their commonalities (they're both good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like them) Boy#1 and Lovely Girl spring from political backgrounds that are distinctly different. Even though they attended the first Obama inauguration together (or at least slogged through the snow for blocks before they came to their senses and slogged back home to watch it on television), my son was in Washington to intern for a prominent Republican senator and LG was there working for a liberal political action group.

Now, One is voting blue and endorsing Obamacare. This causes his father a great deal of chagrin, but I am not at all concerned by this shift to the left. In fact, as a former Peace Corps volunteer, I think it's probably good for him--everyone needs a cross-cultural experience.

And, as a friend pointed out when he heard that our Kansas boy was engaged to a DEMOCRAT, if you aren't liberal when you're young and broke, you don't have a heart; if you aren't a conservative when you're old and pay taxes, you don't have a brain.Boy#1 and Lovely Girl have both hearts and brains, and they've reached across the divide.

Maybe if we're going to back away from the financial cliff our elected representatives need to fall in love.

3 comments:

  1. Like you I too have a liberal DIL and I am sure she is pro Obamacare. However your wise words ring in my mind every time I want to shake some right sense into her young head. "I don't care what she is as long as she loves my son." My friend, I'll hang on that forever.

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  2. I had to chime in because I'm her (very Republican) friend who made that comment. I hope you don't mind, but she shared this with me! She and I have been arguing politics since we were in elementary school. I assure you, she always has the best of intentions, even if she's sometimes off the mark. Ha! But I still stand by the fact that she's the smartest person I know, even if she is a Democrat. I so look forward to meeting you in December when we all go dress shopping!

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    1. A., you have set the bar for great comments on Facebook. Loved that! And I'm glad LG shared this with you--she's not only smart, she's a good sport. This is going to be really, really fun.

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