The Devout Life

"Until the last hippie is strangled by the entrails of the last commie..."

 I think I must actually be bad.

* ~ * ~ *

I'm home, sick. Wonderful.

Must've picked up something or got myself overtired or something. I guess long roadtrips are a game for the young. We left Toronto about 10:30 on Thursday and arrived in Washington by about 8 pm. The boys went off to the Hilton to set up our snazzy display in the conference hall and Gudrun and I went to bed early.

Up the next morning very promptly at four thirty and had to be completely on. Do the hair, put on a bit of maquillage and press the blouse, try not to fall off the high heels. Turn up the charm volume as high as it will go and we're ready.

The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast is a kind of one-day conference with speakers and things that entertains the big Catholic movers and shakers of the US. But the most fun part for me was being with the LifeSite gang in person. We all live in different places and work together through electronic media and it was the first time I had met some of them in person. Of course, it could have been awful. All five of us in the car together for ten hours and if we had discovered we couldn't stand each other... well, it's horrible to contemplate. But the happy truth was that we had a blast. Talked shop and admired the beautiful scenery of upstate New York and Pennsylvania and Maryland. Gobs o' fun.

Once at the actual thing it was really quite exciting. The President was expected so there was a thing like airport security. Very polite security guards looked through all our stuff, purses, computer cases, camera bags etc. There were sniffer dogs and special policemen and a lot of rather burly looking fellows in large suits standing about with little wires sticking out of their ears. Secret Service guys.

We hobnobbed and glad handed, chatted and took pictures. For those who follow the wars, you will recognise quite a few names. Judie Brown from American Life League was next to our table signing her books. The speakers were Scott Hahn (a crashing bore) and Richard John Neuhaus (terrific) and Archbishop Donald Wuerl (snoozed through his talk, so no opinion) but the real highlight was President Bush.

I know, I know, one isn't supposed to be impressed with celebrity or be a respecter of persons, but I have always been a Bush fan. Can't help it. I know there's lots of our American friends who are disappointed with him and have all sorts of very good reasons. But to tell the truth, I don't actually know very much about that stuff, believe it or not. I'm willing to believe the people who say he hasn't done well, on the grounds that they are just more likely than I to know.

But the man himself has always struck me as honest and good. I know that he is a real Christian believer and, as I said to one of the American Oratorians yesterday, if he's faking sincerity at least he seems to be doing it sincerely. As good as one can get with high level politicians. And he has had it harder than most.

We were seated with a couple of nice Americans and before he came in, I leaned over and asked, "So, what is the proper thing to do when the President comes in?" My table companion, a very nice ex-Methodist minister who runs an organization dedicated to teaching parenting skills to inner city poor people, knowing I was a Canadian said, "Don't worry; it's like the Queen. You just stand up."

Anyway, one does not get to the top of the heap of electoral politics without having an enormously powerful presence and as a man George W. Bush really seems to embody all that is good in the American character. There were maybe a thousand people there and everyone knew that we were just waiting for Bush. He was a few minutes late and the program was going on without him, when suddenly the announcement came: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States," and we all stood up.

His speech was fine, he said enough of the right things but the content seemed beside the point: it was, to put it simply, thrilling to be there. He seemed to be happy to be in a room full of people who liked him.

After Bush, I was assigned to cover Richard Neuhaus' talk and I'm sooo mad! John Henry got a long interview with Dawn Eden, even though he seemed not really to know anything about who she is and why she is so cool. He doesn't have time to cover the blogs, which is more or less my department. When I saw that she was there, and not being interviewed by me, and furthermore, was looking like she was going to leave before the end of the talk I was supposed to be covering, I couldn't stand it. I left the tape recorder running and went over and just barged in on her conversation with John Henry.

"You're Dawn Eden right?"

"Yes!"

We established our secret identities by various blogger secret handshakes and I bought a copy of her book and she signed it. She is doing a promotion tour for The Thrill of the Chaste, which I know is a tiring business. I read some of the book in the car on the way home and will probably be writing about it a bit soon.

I soooo wish I had known she was there; I would have loved to have had a chance to chat properly. I'm sure there'll be a next time.

After that, things seemed to wind down and we betook ourselves to an Indian restaurant for lunch, got back to the hotel and packed up and were headed off to Pittsburgh by 2:30. (I begged to visit the Smithsonian, but no dice. I can't believe we went all the way to Washington and I didn't get to say hello to the big elephant at the Natural History Museum. I always visit the elephant when I'm in Washington. It's a thing. I hope he wasn't offended that I didn't come.)

We stayed with more LifeSite people in Pittsburgh, and learned one of the big American secrets. Pittsburgh is a great town! It's beautiful, all built on the sides of the mountains. Lots of cool bridges, tunnels, and a wonderful shopping district where I bought a lot of very expensive cheese. At least, it would have been expensive if I had bought it in Toronto. Definitely go to Pittsburgh if you can.