I have long liked Obama, although was never fully in his camp, but I have to say that his speech yesterday was deeply moving to me.
There was something so refreshing about hearing someone admit that they love someone, count them as family, embrace their good points and still recognize that the person can have deeply flawed views of the world. And it made me cry as I thought of my very special great-aunt.
My great-aunt was the spiritual link for me that I think Obama's pastor has been for him. She was a devout Roman Catholic, and her early influence is most likely why I am Christian at all. She taught me the "Lord's Prayer" and the Rosary and table grace.
She loved me more unconditionally than anyone in my scattered childhood. My parents were separated before I was born, and she was my earliest caretaker, my sure refuge in a storm. She was the one who remembered the funny stories about when I was a very small child when most of my family was too distracted to notice. She let me take and lose every spoon in my mother's cutlery collection so I could dig in the mud. She would sit with me on the porch swing outside on holidays and just spend quiet time. At her funeral, many people commented on how wonderful my boyfriend must be, because they'd heard about him from her. She had never met him, but I loved him, so she just assumed that he had to be wonderful.
But she also said ridiculous things. I remember, taking her to Mass one Sunday, where she said, "If everyone would just stop thinking so much and listen to the Pope, things would go better." And even at 17, that rebellious age, I just nodded and walked into church with her. She also commented on being unable to attend a cousin's wedding, "Well, it doesn't matter. It's not Christian, anyway, being Lutheran." Born in the very early 1900s, she had a completely different worldview than I, who am now Lutheran myself. She certainly was no progressive on issues of race or politics. She wore a rose on her collar to symbolize her support for the pro-life movement. If she couldn't accept the difference of those crazy Germans who had abandoned the authority of Rome, she certainly couldn't embrace those of even further different backgrounds.
She was good and loving and kind. She was intelligent, too, on issues not clouded by her prejudices. She was a mainstay in my life, and I still remember the first line of her last note to me in a Valentine's Day card 15 or so years ago: "I haven't forgotten you, and I never will."
I haven't forgotten her, either, and when Obama explained his deep affection for this man, this family member, this person who had been there for him, I remembered my aunt.
I have never liked Obama as much as I did when he expressed what is true and right about loving someone no matter your disagreements and no matter their crazy ideas.
For me, I suddenly "got" what he's saying about unity, and on a personal level, at last, I realized that I do want this man to be president. Not just because he's the Democrat and because he's not John McCain, although those reasons were quite sufficient for me. I want him to be president because he is Barack Obama.
I cannot predict if the speech will be a turning point for the campaign or the nation, but I can say it was one for me.