The craziness of the this campaign trail has landed right at my suburban doorstep.
My 13-year-old daughter has always been told that she can be anything she wants to be. Right now she wants to be an astronomer, a fashion designer and a pastry chef. We always say she will be the best dressed chef staring at the moon. And why not? Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain's running mate. In my daughter's lifetime we now have current, tangible, understandable evidence that anything is possible.
My 16-year-old son has friends on his high school's debate team. Palin is at Debate Camp. She has hunkered down with McCain's top advisors to learn how to debate Joe Biden on Thursday -- what to say, how to say it and, most likely, they're focusing on what not to say. I imagine a tense yet casually clad Palin wearing her McCain/Palin T-shirt (and possibly a cap) and sitting with her legs crossed pretzel-style on the floor while her eyes dart back and forth between foreign policy and economics.
But I have a feeling she is simply waiting for someone to make s'mores.
I might not believe she is ready to be a grandmother any more than she is ready to be vice president, but Sarah Palin has brought the politics of parenting teens to a new level.
On a daily basis, when we used to talk about the school day or the towels left on the bathroom floor, we're pondering politics. As a family we've tackled the issues of teen pregnancy and the right to choose.
Thanks to all the candidates we've discussed the differences between the political parties, oratory skills among candidates, political cartoons and late-night satire. I'm peppering our dinner conversation with ageism and racism and sexism. I'm saying "Guess what happened today..." and I don't finish that off with the latest tale of one of our three dogs. I fill in the kids on the latest on the economy -- in a way that hopefully has them put out their hands fewer times during the week, and in a way that doesn't shake their confidence in the Bank of Mom. I explain my opinions of McCain and Palin and Obama and Biden and I listen to the yays and nays muffled with the mouthful of that night's dinner.
This is a historic campaign to be followed by a historic election and the next four years will help us write our American history in a way we've never done it before. My kids know this and so do I. They are part of history of this country and of our family -- and the trials and tribulations and diversity of this election season has offered us opportunities we'd not have had if every candidate was white, or qualified.
And strangely -- for all that -- I am really grateful.
Even if I am also scared to death.
