Last night I ventured into the basement of my house for the first time at least a month. (When you live in an 8-person. 8-bedroom group house, its easy to do that.) On my return from the backup laundry room, I rediscovered my roommate's poster displaying 50 newspaper front pages from around the world on the day Barack Obama won the presidential election. The heading on the poster is "A World Changed."
Really? A World Changed? I can't imagine waking up every morning to shoulder those expectations. To want to be President, you have to be slightly insane, even under ordinary circumstances. But when the world pins its hopes on you as if you're the international messiah, you--being more aware of your humanity than anyone--cannot possibly react with total credulity and simultaneously claim to be 100% sane.
Do you think Barack ever looks at Michelle, eyes wide, face frantic, and says it's just too much for one man?
Update: I'm currently reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and I'm intrigued by the way she humanizes the person behind the position. I wonder if that's what prompted me to imagine Barack Obama gripped by insecurities he almost certainly has.
