During the Clinton administration, which we spent in Vienna, we went to see the Boss in concert. With friends, we were able to ignore the staidly dressed and rhythm repressed Viennese, and danced in our seats to a fabulous concert. It was verboten to stand. Verboten is a word they like in Austria.
The next morning I asked John, "Would you rather be a president of the United States or Bruce Springsteen?" He hesitated.
"Would you rather your son be a president of the United States or Bruce Springsteen?" He looked perplexed.
"Would you rather your daughter marry a president or Bruce?" He kind of shrugged.
"If you were a woman would you rather be married to a president of the United States or Bruce?" He just looked at me.
It's hard to get a straight answer out of him for things like that. My answer to all of the above was Bruce. Could you guess? Maybe it was because the Monica Lewinsky encounters were dominating the news at that time and I knew more than I wanted to about the anatomy of our president, God bless him. But I wasn't asking about Bruce vs. Clinton. I was asking about being The Boss vs. the office itself.
I've been thinking about those questions again recently. It used to be that being president of the United States or giving birth to a future one was the highest aim you could have. John wanted to be president when he was five. Lots of little boys did. So did Obama. I fantasized about being a First Lady. That was during the Jackie Kennedy era, when elegance and dignity seemed to live at the White House. That was before anyone knew that the president was screwing women left and right in that very mansion and Jackie was finding unfamilar underwear in her bed. But I digress.
Now, with a truly inspirational guy in the White House, one who has single-handedly changed the way the world sees America and how African American children feel about themselves, I'm thinking that maybe the Boss wouldn't be getting my votes anymore. The presidency seems elevated to me once again. Dignified.
Interestingly Barack Obama was once asked who he would like to be if he couldn't be himself. He answered, "Bruce Springsteen."
I have been thinking about it, and I just can't decide who I'd rather marry. Probably The Boss because he seems to like girls my age, and he will still be rocking long after Obama has left the White House.
ReplyDeleteI believe John was thinking (but, just didn't want to admit it at the time) that he would like his daughter to marry a nice boy who was born in New Jersey (like Bruce), but, was raised in "The Honeymoon Capital of the World": The Poconos.
ReplyDeleteNow that Obama is president, that's a tough question. If it were Obama versus Bruce, I would probably go with Obama. If it were any president versus Bruce, I would go with Bruce. Actually Bruce is probably more fun all around, so now I can't decide.
ReplyDelete