My "famosity" (yeah, I know that isn't a word -- yet) may be getting into the way of my work ... .

... this great cover for the in-house Geico publication arrived on my chair in the headquarters offices yesterday.  I vaguely recalled doing a phone interview early in the year, and that I'd referred the caller to our superintendent because this was one of the many media inquiries resulting from the governmental shutdown last year -- and, yes, they're still coming. Unlike most that had come from other agencies and/or nonprofits, this was clearly a commercial enterprise and might be subject to different protocols.  After all, we're a federal agency and there are regulations to cover such things.  Since such decisions come at a far higher level than mine, we needed clearance, but eventually the go-ahead came and the 30-minute interview took place, but was quickly forgotten in the busyness of daily life.

Yesterday when I reached my desk at park headquarters in the Civic Center, there was an official-looking manila envelop on my chair with the return address of the office of the superintendent of  Mount Rainer National Park in Washington State.  In it was a brief note from his secretary, Donna Rahier,  stating that this had been dropped off at their office, and that she was forwarding it hoping that it would reach me.  The envelop held this cover page and the inside article (great!) that was brief and accompanied another photo.  This was the first I'd seen it, and only then did I remember this interview ever occurring.  I loved it and her thoughtfulness in getting it to me.  I might never have known ... .

... but what it brought up for me was the fact that much of this media attention might be rising from the need of the up-coming and aging Boomer generation to have role models for later life ... could be. The old models of avoidance and denial of the aging process may be finally dying, and in its place this generation of my children may be developing a hunger for meaning of a different kind.  Maybe we elders who continue to hang in and thrive are creating hope for a generation tiring of the adulation of youth model and are searching for something more meaningful to hang their hopes on.

Do you suppose?

It seems clear that I've aged into a place where I'm receiving kudos, trophies, and certificates of honor for simply being able to tie my own shoes!  It defies explanation; and though I feel affirmed and flattered by the attention (who wouldn't be?), it's difficult to feel worthy of being singled out for such tributes.

... but whose complaining?

... with the awesome spectre of non-existence in the fast-approaching future --  I'll take it!

Black History Month has now faded into the past, and it's on to Women's History ...

... but before we do that there's March 3rd, Naturalization Day, to get through, and at the invitation of the Department of Homeland Security, I'm to give the address welcoming new citizens and their families and friends on Tuesday in the Craneway Pavilion of the historic Ford Assembly Plant.  This important national event is co-sponsored by the National Park Service, and is staged at many national parks throughout the nation.

It's an honor to have been asked to do so again this year.  I gave the speech two years ago, and those upturned faces -- so filled with emotion -- as I looked down from the platform ... I wonder if anyone remembers a word of it?

I know that the feelings in me as I delivered my words were almost overwhelming.

I'd spent days before trying to justify being the deliverer of those words of welcome.  How could I possibly be asked to give assurance to these new arrivals that the land they were entering would live up to their hopes and expectations?  Especially since my personal history contained generations of pain and anguish of those enslaved in a political system still struggling to overcome its violent past. To have survived into the present under decades of Jim Crow and broken promises offered little comfort.  Could I do this without yielding to hypocrisy and denial?  Was this what my great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, would have wished were she alive today? Would she have preferred retribution?  Could I do this while remaining true to myself?

The answers arrived at two years ago came about after many hours of tossing and turning, doubts, and sometimes tentative and temporary affirmations.  Those few words that found their way to the paper were arrived at after days of slash and burn editing and tears of frustration. I'd assumed that this would be a one time experience, and that, ultimately, the act of thinking through my position on such an important subject could serve to reinforce a commitment to my work as a federal employee operating inside the circle.

In the end, the speech evolved into a simple but honest statement of my beliefs and a believable declaration of my patriotism.  My sincerity had been sorely tested.

Several weeks ago -- when the request came to be the keynoter for this year's program, my immediate response was, "oh NO!"  I could not go through that again.  No one should ask that of me.

... then it dawned that this would be a totally different audience of new Americans, and that the agonizing is now in the past.  I'd lived through this test of my patriotism; no one was asking that of me.  I remembered that I'd posted that speech on my blog at the time, and that all that was needed now would be to copy and paste it into readable (double-spaced text), and we were good to go!

(Go to the search bar -- top of the left side of the screen, above my picture and the banner, enter Naturalization Day and the speech will pop up after scrolling down.)