nobody

I have been thinking a lot about our new president.

OK, our president elect. He has 12 days then the problems of the world settle on his head. We all wait to see how he acts or reacts to this or that.

But it was not long ago he was a guy from a rather confused family, who though very bright, was unheard of outside his circle. Even a member of the state government does not cause a big following.

I live near the capital of our state, Linda (daughter 4) used to live there and we would visit her often. For a while she owned a retail store down town. I have walked down the street and greeted the mayor of the city, and watched the Governor drive his Suburban away from the capital building.

They are known but not really adversely so. Shucks the guy who represents me in state government lives a block away from my house. He will probably hold that position for a long time, he just retired from his “regular” job a few years ago! In my state we do not pay our legislators a whole lot, nor do we expect too much of them. It is a wonderful retirement job!

So I watch the hubbub about our new president. He has gone from a regular guy who would ride his bicycle around his town, to the most guarded and protected guy on the planet.

More than even he could imagine his life will be forever changed. I am not talking about power and all of that stuff. I am talking about privacy, the ability to walk down the street and be ignored.

A lot of us would like to be famous and maybe even rich, but we have no idea of what that would involve.

So as I watch the ceremonies of the change of administration, read about the appointments and the decisions, I also see a little kid who had one grandpa who was white and one who was black. He did not grow up in wealth, luxury and power, but lived much of the time with his grandparents, sometimes in an apartment.

I wish him well, we need good leadership, the whole world does, but as I watch I am so glad I can walk down the street and no one cares. You can drive right up to my house, in fact you can walk up to my front door and ring the bell. Leo may bark, but at 13 pounds he is pretty harmless.

I like being nobody.