My Momma Worked for Obama

– Posted in: Bright Side of Life, Children's Books, Cleaning, Cranky Tammy, Elfie, Mouths of Babes, Newt, Parenting, Personal Insanity, Tenzin, Things To Do with Kids

I try really hard to be a minimalist. Try. If you saw my house, you probably wouldn’t assume that this is one of my greater aspirations. Granted, I don’t have shelves filled with 20-year-old Precious Moments collections or newspaper piles from eight months ago, but I have my issues. I’d blame it all on Tenzin and the kids, but. . . no, actually I blame it all on Tenzin and the kids. I used to be way more organized.

So like one of those pathetic salmon beating itself against the rocks, desperately trying to make its way upstream, I’ve been slowly trying to clean out sections of my house. And today I actually got the kids to go through their humongous pile of art papers that’s been building for months on their unusable art table (due to the massive pile of paper). I’m still kind of in shock about it.

It was funny and freaky to watch. After they got going, it was like watching mini-Sunny and mini-Tenzin cleaning our office. Newt would get distracted. Then Elfie would get a little annoyed, hold up a piece of paper, and say, “Newt! Do you want this or not?”

Both kids ended up keeping a ridiculous amount of stuff, but at least they went through it. And since we started with Elfie anguishing over the thought of throwing out an IHOP kid’s menu that she’d partially colored, I’m thinking we did pretty well. I don’t know if I made an impression or scarred her for life when I started explaining the importance of deciding what’s truly valuable to you — otherwise you’ll end up a hoarder, trapped in your house and surrounded by piles of old magazines, mounds of clothes you bought and never wore, and stacks of value-sized toilet paper that you had to buy 10 of because it was on special.

But I’ve also tried to explain to her, though not well I’m sure, that art is meant to be loved while you’re doing it (I think I’ve even tried to tell her about the monks who do the sand paintings and then blow them away right after they’re done). While it’s wonderful to have my work after-the-fact, it’s the creating that brings me the most joy, and I hope she gets that from her art. And then I hit her with another hoarding story — this time about her crazy aunt — thus motivating her to rise up against her genetic predispositions.

Anyway, all this talk of art being fleeting got me thinking about a children’s book I wrote right after Obama was elected. I was told by one editor that it wouldn’t get published due to its lack of staying power (picture books need to be “timeless”). But I love this story. And I loved writing it. So I’m sending it out into the ether with the hope that someone else will love it, too. Because art is not about hoarding. Sometimes, when you’re lucky, you get to create something good and share it. And then it’s really all about the joy.

My Momma Worked for Obama

My momma worked for Obama. You know — Barack Obama, the President of the United States. But this was a long time ago, before most people even knew his name. Momma says when she’d talk about him back then, people thought he was a new rock band or a weird kind of food. So Momma had her work cut out for her.

Momma was a volunteer for the Obama campaign. That means she did her work for no money because she thought it was so important. Everyday, she told as many people as she could about Barack Obama. Then she asked them to vote for him to be our next president.

Momma worked a lot. Sometimes I was sad because she wasn’t home. Daddy is a better cook, so a least we ate well. But he doesn’t snuggle us the same way Momma does.

Once, when I was feeling sad, I asked Momma why she was working so much. This is what she said:

“Momma works for Obama because our schools need fixing, and he wants to make them better.

“Momma works for Obama because there are people who are sick, and he wants to make sure someone takes care of them.

“Momma works for Obama because there are people who don’t have homes to live in or food to eat, and he wants to take help them.

“Momma works for Obama because we aren’t taking care of our water and our air and our planet, and he wants to make sure we do.

“Momma works for Obama because there are people in the world who are very angry with each other, and he wants us all to get along.

“Momma works for Obama so you’ll have a better school to go to, and cleaner water to drink, and a more peaceful world to live in.

“Momma works for Obama because of you.”

So now that Momma’s work is all done, she says our work has just begun. We give all of the toys I don’t play with and the clothes that don’t fit me to kids who need them. We buy food for people who are hungry. We turn off the lights and the TV when we’re not using them. We only use as much water as we need.

And Momma says one of the most important things I can do to change the world is to respect my teachers and be kind to the other kids at school — especially the ones who feel left out.

Momma says people who love their country can change it. Momma must love the United States, and me, a whole lot.

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