What's Love . . . ?

What's love got to do with it?  Everything!

 

 [Photo from White House website] 

 

I've been Obama-watching for a long time now.  It's a hobby that doesn't get old.  That's because the love between these two has more sparkle, more facets, than the Hope diamond.  They have something precious and rare going on, especially for a"celebrity" couple.

During campaign's silly season, President Obama was called a "celebrity" by the opposition as if it were a bad thing.  Right up there with "Kenyan,""elitist," and "intellectual."   But we Americans tend to assign celebrity status to all high-profile glamorous people who appear regularly in photos, film, or on our TV or laptop screens, don't we?   

Yep, they're glamorous without even trying to be or caring that they are.  I'd bet my house on that, and you know Lucy's crazy about her house.  I love how they look at each other.  Surely he's better at bluffing a poker hand than at hiding his adoration and desire for his beautiful wife.  It's clear that they're solid partners in love.  In parenting.  In nurturing each other and the family.   Their relationship seems to have both the comfort of a warm, fuzzy robe and the heat of a sizzling tropical sun.  They are fully who they are, consistently, it seems to me.  They're comfortable in their own skin and not given to "puttin' on airs" as my great aunt La La used to say about self-important people.  There's easy laughter as well as secret smiles.between them  Their respect for one another is obvious.  And they're just so damned good together.   I won't try to guess all the reasons why; however, I think it helps that each of them is a self-actualized person.  There's no dependency here.  Certainly no co-dependency.  Looks to me like they enjoy a healthy interdependency.  

A cable news host was saying recently that the Obamas are an exemplary couple and family model for persons of color.  I believe that's true; I also believe the First Couple's relationship is worthy of emulation by all people, whatever their ethnicity.  

Seriously, doesn't it make you smile to see them together, just the two of them or with the girls, or anywhere in any situation?  They have moved me when paying respects to grieving Americans and when they're greeting visitors at The White House.  Anywhere, any time, they are like a breath of fresh air.  I have great hopes that their love and commitment will survive even the excruciating test of two terms in the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

And on the eve of Valentine's Day 2013, I'm wondering whether they'll have gifts for one another.  I mean besides the obvious gift of the love they share every day.  Somehow I can't imagine the President dispatching someone to Victoria's Secret  to fetch a gift for the First Lady.   I can imagine pearls or maybe a special pair of earrings. 

My wish is for them to have a stolen hour or two, hiding out in one of the lesser-known bedrooms, with the door double locked.  Maybe some Al Green going on the Bose and some champagne and chocolate within reach.  Okay, they can celebrate it however they want!  They're the First Couple, after all.   Happy Valentine's Day to the leader of the free world and his goddess of a partner in love.

And Happy Valentine's Day to you all, too!