Obama’s elder daughter is unusually tall for her age – she seems to come well up to her father’s shoulder in the photos we have seen
I can see now how my mother blenched when at much the same age I calculated that, at my current rate of growth, I would be as tall as my father by the time I was 15. He was 6’ 4”; my mother was a foot shorter. It must be easier to be a tall girl if you do not tower over your mother & almost everyone else in the family
There have been an unusual number of those snatched family photos. Not just the fixed happy-families-grin/m pose for the election address, but showing a relaxed, happy, confident & close family doing ordinary family things
The younger girl seems the typical little sister – looking cheekily at the camera & laughing at, or with, the photographers
I have seen only one photo of Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, who, reports suggest, will be living in the White House with them. I felt I recognised her instantly. Bien dans sa peau, in that useful French phrase. A calm & confident woman, one you would like to have as your mother, on your side all the way but sure of her standards & beliefs, someone you would not want to disappoint but who will give you confidence. Far too much to read into one photo! But interesting to ponder over the important influence that the women who brought up Obama and his wife have on all our lives now
There was a very interesting programme on Radio 4, Obama: Professor President, which gave me heart. We all know the possibly impossible burden our hopes are putting on the man. I was particularly relieved to hear that Obama is definitely a fox – he doesn’t think that there is only One Big Way To Truth. But at the same time he thinks & studies and analyses hard, has walked the walk in Chicago and in Africa.
he does not just shrug his shoulders & say with a charming grin Ah well, whatever works
I can see now how my mother blenched when at much the same age I calculated that, at my current rate of growth, I would be as tall as my father by the time I was 15. He was 6’ 4”; my mother was a foot shorter. It must be easier to be a tall girl if you do not tower over your mother & almost everyone else in the family
There have been an unusual number of those snatched family photos. Not just the fixed happy-families-grin/m pose for the election address, but showing a relaxed, happy, confident & close family doing ordinary family things
The younger girl seems the typical little sister – looking cheekily at the camera & laughing at, or with, the photographers
I have seen only one photo of Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, who, reports suggest, will be living in the White House with them. I felt I recognised her instantly. Bien dans sa peau, in that useful French phrase. A calm & confident woman, one you would like to have as your mother, on your side all the way but sure of her standards & beliefs, someone you would not want to disappoint but who will give you confidence. Far too much to read into one photo! But interesting to ponder over the important influence that the women who brought up Obama and his wife have on all our lives now
There was a very interesting programme on Radio 4, Obama: Professor President, which gave me heart. We all know the possibly impossible burden our hopes are putting on the man. I was particularly relieved to hear that Obama is definitely a fox – he doesn’t think that there is only One Big Way To Truth. But at the same time he thinks & studies and analyses hard, has walked the walk in Chicago and in Africa.
he does not just shrug his shoulders & say with a charming grin Ah well, whatever works
