Dear Hilary,
I just want to say that I am really proud of you. In spite of today’s loss, I think you are a real victor. You have negotiated the volatile, aggressive and often unkind (particularly to women) political space with a grace that you hardly receive credit for. Your worth, your focus, your steadfastness even in the face of innumerable personal and professional challenges in your husband’s administration, in the Obamas’ and even in this, your almost-tenure, are exemplary. What truly floors me is your willingness to time and time again offer, or allow yourself be offered, for service as though you fully comprehend how valuable your contribution is to your nation’s growth. I wish more of us were as confident in our ability to contribute, secure in the worth of our contribution.
You must know that the harshness with which you are criticised by a world often unsure of how to address strong women, is typical. You know this. Perhaps this knowledge is what enables you steer so graciously, casually deflecting the jibes at your expense, the jokes on your looks, your mannerisms, beliefs, on your very character, time and time again. You are an impressive woman. And regardless of what anyone says, you will always have my support, not for being a woman but simply for the person you have shown yourself to be. Thank you for putting yourself forward and following your purpose and passion with a relentlessness many women dare not dream of, you are an example, and a powerful one.
Your loss today is merely a symptom of the times, not a deficiency of your person. The noise around your perceived ‘likeability’ and authenticity were always a curiosity to me, I watched you debate and I could understand it. Even though I did not believe it. You sound like you know yourself and for a world struggling to find its collective identity, a Hilary is a confusion.
Don’t worry, perhaps at your age Chelsea might run. I pray she meets a world less willing to choose any man, even a madman, in place of a merely unusual woman.
W.
Oh Wendelyn! 