Why I Love Michelle Obama: Humility. Grace. Integrity. Subversive. And Those Arms!

Michelle Obama feels like a real person.

No pretense. Not precious.

She was not brought up in wealth and privilege – she came from a working class family. She attended public schools. Neither parent went to college. She rode city buses for 3 hours per day to get to magnet high school. She earned her way based on merit to get into Princeton.

She has proved herself to me.

Michelle makes  great efforts to maintain her sense of humor and the absurd. What could be more absurd than having to live in the White House. Yet she is able to place herself outside the situation and find the ridiculous or the reality of it.

My Favorite Moment of Anarchy + Subversion was when she dug up the White House to plant an organic garden.  It was a moment of high drama: She was a real person, in her gardening clothes, with a shovel.

 

It was  radical: she made a statement that you can eat well and don’t need to go to McDonalds. You have choices with how you eat, even if money is in short supply. She backed it up with her commitment to Urban Agriculture, and defining innovative ways to show that organic food doesn’t need to be spendy.

It was subversive: dig up that famous yet toxic green lawn?! Woot! Lawns are a vestige of 50s regression to the mean. Everyone, out with the lawns!

I Love Her for Many More Reasons…

She mentors young women at the White House – young women with no political connections or clout, especially sophomore and junior girls who are in the middle – girls with promise but need interaction with professional women

She gives her daughters the same attention and motivation as every mother wants, yet is able to protect them from public scrutiny – the private life is private.

She’s not distant – doesn’t dress from only Parisian or New York couturiers. She wears real clothes from J. Crew.

She seems to have an awesome, loving marriage. We never really know this stuff, but she laughs at and with her husband, trying to maintain her individuality as many wives of high-powered husbands to while still supporting him and being there, wholly her own person.

And She’s Just Damn Foxy.

Don’t you want to be her friend? I do. I’d love to dish on urban agriculture, motherhood, and the ravages of stress.

Have you seen her deltoids and triceps. Surely we could do some yoga together, on the lawn, in the organic garden.

Do you love Michelle Obama? Tell me why.