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.
i live i Belgium and i adore Mrs. Obama just because she a humble person. And she is not trying to act like THE first lady. TEAMICHELLE’OBAMA.
Totally agree! Well stated.
She is smart, beautiful, caring, compassionate, a good mom, a good wife…..and just seems like an really GOOD person. And humble. Who could NOT like her?!?!?!?
This is a parody…right?
Or, did you not look at the picture you posted of Michelle in her “…real person, …gardening clothes.”?
And, was she really a “merit” student or an affirmative action student? Do we really know? What proof can anyone offer?
What I would really like to know is her positions on the following:
1. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (aka CAFOs)
2. Industrial farming operations
3. The USDA Food Pyramid or My Plate
4. The crushing burden of government regulations on independent / family farmers
5. Crop subsides – especially those that promote the wasting of top soil and pollution waterways and oceans
6. Sugar subsides
7. Raw dairy
8. Monsanto and their GMO grains and seeds
9. Grains in general
10. Fats
11. I’ve heard one person refer to food as “…that which was made by God (or nature, if you prefer) and that which was made by man.” Where does Michelle stand on this line between nature and man?
12. Does Michelle believe that we all have a right to eat and drink whatever we want without government interference?
As you can see, there is a lot we do not know about Michelle and her position on food (and health, for that matter), and I’m sure I could come up with several more.
In my opinion, and that is an n=1 opinion, Michelle is a BigGov, BigAg, BigPharma – we have all the solutions, even if they are wrong – type of person. There is no “get government out of the way” in any of her positions or proposals. Everything she says, or believes, revolves around more government regulation.
I found you website today through a comment you made on the BulletproofExec site. My first impression were very positive, and I thought this is a site I could recommend to my wife and daughter (who are not yet completely convinced that paleo/primal/Bulletproof is for them) and I still do, and will. However, I thought this was a biased puff piece lacking in any real thought, or insight, on the subject at hand.
This is a very informative interview with Joel Salatin, owner / operator of Poly Face Farms, I think you will find enlightening:
http://reason.com/archives/2012/05/05/the-joel-salatin-interview
All the best,