gratitude365: Elizabeth Edwards

As I’ve heard from several of you, it’s been very quiet on the home front here on gratitude365. No posts for more than a month. Life has really gotten in the way of blogging (and I’ll fill you in on that later). It didn’t quite take heaven and earth moving to break my blogging slump, it only took a meeting with Elizabeth Edwards, who met 22 of us Silicon Valley Moms bloggers--again--on Saturday downtown San Jose an in intimate board room setting.

Having read only half of her book so far, I am even more impressed with her this time than the last. Just knowing about some of the details of her life, like her childhood in a military family, moving around a lot, including overseas, and then as an adult battling breast cancer and grieving the loss of her oldest son, Wade, which is why I haven't finished the book yet--I just kind of slowed at that long and painful chapter because, truth be known, that’s a hard read. I chatted briefly with Hargrave, Elizabeth’s assistant and one of her dear friends, about this fact and she commented that she understood, but for the people who have lost children like Elizabeth, they find that chapter in all its rawness comforting. It’s a shared experience that only those who have gone through that particular pain can know.

So, although impressed I was with Elizabeth’s articulateness and detailed knowledge of her husband's ambitious plans while in the White House, it’s this down-to-earth access, genuineness, and the realness of having shared hard life experiences that makes her so appealing to me, and I suspect many others. She’s not a talking head spouting mumbo jumbo that I don’t understand. She’s not over-scripted or over-handled and doesn’t need permission from campaign spin-doctors to talk to us or comment on blogs. She’s a real person, having walked through the flames of life and has come out the other side, sitting down to talk about what she’s passionate about—change in our country, change in the world.

In a world where I find so little about politics inspires me, this kind of personal outreach does. And, "chemo-brain" or not (something she joked about in our meeting), she has an amazing memory for details. She remembered that my hair was longer last time we met. I was floored that she remembered meeting me at all. (That's the back of my new "do" at right). I also enjoyed just talking with Hargrave and Ryan (her tech advisor), people I recognized from the pictures in her book. From her loving description of them as family, I feel like I knew even them. I left our meeting feeling like even I—who pretty much dropped all interest in politics after working as a page in the Idaho State Legislature in high school—really could join this “family” that is working so passionately for change, for better lives for everyone.

You can read some of the specifics of the John Edwards campaign we discussed (healthcare, college for everyone, re-establishing the United States' moral authority in the world, education, etc.) at SV moms, where live blogging was done by Sarah and Beth. I was very impressed with the level of detail in which she responded to our questions and how much many of the things she said made sense...and I could get behind. If I had been given the opportunity to ask a question, I would have asked about the possibility of the next president nominating a Supreme Court Justice (Justice Stevens is 87 years old after all). I would ask what kind of characteristics John as a president would look for in a Superme Court Justice. Not their opinion record, not their politics, but what would/should the character of the Supreme Court Justice be. So, if Elizabeth, if you’re reading this, I’d love to hear what you think.