Today will be remembered in our family for generations.

[grantcart]

Today my daughter met the finest President this country has had since Lincoln.

She is an executive in a company that has been closely aligned with Democratic politics and a high profile supporter of the President in Chicago. The President has visited the office several times since she joined the company but this was the first time she was able to meet him.

I have felt such an affinity to Dr. Dunham who was working in Indonesia at the same time I was and we may have even crossed paths at the embassy or possibly at the Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta.

I had the feeling that many of us shared that when he was speaking about taking the country to a new place through relentless optimism, courageous reconciliation and strengthening those that are struggling that he was speaking directly to me.

I found it difficult to hang around DU when were being trolled by people who constantly tried to pick at the President and found that it contributed to a return of my bizarre but troublesome affliction of vertigo attacks and had to take drastic steps to step away. Fortunately changes were made so that I could return but I still have to temper my tendency to over commit my passion.

My daughter still lives in a normal world where people who lead like President Obama are the expected norm and so she casually sent me this text:

"I just shook Obama's hand. Busy now, have volleyball after work. Dad, I will call you tomorrow".

I just wonder if I will ever be able to return to a world where somebody like Obama is President and it is considered so commonplace that you could tell your Dad with a text and a casual "will call you tomorrow" after meeting the President. I am so glad that she still lives in that world. It seems like it has been a light year since we lived there. In the Granttribe it will be incorporated into our family history and passed on for generations.

[bravenak]

1. So lucky!!

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Wow! That is the coolest thing I have read today!

How wonderful for your daughter, something she will remember forever!

[underthematrix]

3. What a beautiful experience and one that will become as

you said part of your family's legacy.

I adore President Obama.

[sheshe2]

4. Thank you to both you and your daughter...

Her text~

"I just shook Obama's hand. Busy now, have volleyball after work. Dad, I will call you tomorrow".

Made me laugh and I needed that.

Thanks grantcart.

Stay well.

[tblue37]

5. I have pics of my granddaughter with the Obamas in Madrid. She was 18 months old at the time.

Her parents work in the embassy there (State Department Foreign Service), and the Obamas stopped there on the way home from a European trip.

[KT2000]

6. just what the doctor ordered!

great experience for your family. Thanks for sharing.
We will get back there.

[Blue_Roses]

7. This is inspiring

and reminds me that we have some awesome people who are looking out for us, as we navigate through these scary times. We will get through this...

[Cha]

8. Oh Grant! That is wonderful.. Mahalo for sharing your daughter's

"casual" experience with us!

Tell her we were all so excited for her and President Obama!

Always great to hear of sightings of our former President!

[brer cat]

9. That is wonderful!

We are always glad to see you back among us, grantcart, but not if it contributes to health issues.

This is important for all of us:

I had the feeling that many of us shared that when he was speaking about taking the country to a new place through relentless optimism, courageous reconciliation and strengthening those that are struggling that he was speaking directly to me.

[mopinko]

10. i am so glad we are getting them back at least part time.

i am planning to be as active as i can in the library, especially the "garden" that will soon cover half the south side.
we are a little jaded here, i guess. he is our hometown guy. many of us have met him, done business w him, attended small fundraisers in the early days.

he is, without a doubt in my mind, the finest president we ever had. i say that w/o fear of contradiction because i am pretty sure no other president was ever so open and emotional. lincoln, maybe. how many gave world class hugs all.the.time.?
but he is such a whole and integrated person. i wonder sometimes how he ever made it to the white house.

tell your daughter i said hi. maybe i will get to meet her one day.