Barbara Bush--The Excellent Homemaker

On this the day of Barbara Bush's funeral I am reminded of the year 1990 when as First Lady she was invited to be the commencement speaker at Wellesley College. There was much controversy over this invitation. Some 150 students at Wellesley protested her speech claiming it did not uphold the school's feminist beliefs.

Their petition said, "To honor Barbara Bush as a commencement speaker is to honor a woman who has gained recognition through the achievements of her husband, which contravenes what we have been taught over the last four years at Wellesley."

Oh, please. So recognition through achievement was the standard for honor? I wrote a letter to the editor at the time of this protest. I argued that Barbara Bush could probably be credited as much with having achieved the position of First Lady as her husband could be with having been elected president. How would George H.W. Bush have fared raising six children on his own? Barbara maintained the family. Is there any more important job?

Barbara Bush advised the class of 1990 to do three things: Believe in something larger than yourself....get involved in the big ideas of your time. Find the joy in life. Cherish your human connections.  "...you are a human being first and those human connections--- with spouses, with children, with friends-- are the most important investments you will ever make.

Read the entire speech HERE.

Psychologist Phyllis Chesler said at the time (according to the New York Times), that the number of students who voted for Mrs. Bush suggests that "many women still want to live in the castle, still believe in the myth of rescue by marriage and still believe in Prince Charming."

Such a characterization of those who value children and family life is as profoundly offensive today as it was then.

As Barbara Bush once said, "At the end of your life, you will never regret hot having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent." (www.goodhousekeeping.com)

Indeed. What really matters is not what your paycheck is, not what your title is and not how much status your work accords. As Barbara Bush said in her speech, "Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens in your house."

What matters in life is how much you have loved. Barbara Bush's life it would seem was a life well lived.