For One Brief Shining Moment

During this primary season which seems to be going on forever, the presidency and presidents are on our minds. Usually when you think of a president, issues and leadership are at the top of the list. Romance? Not so much. However, watching the Q at 5:00 AM the other night,(yeah, yeah, I'm a night owl) surprisingly romance entered into it. Now I'm not talking about falling in love with a candidate like Anderson blogged about a while back. I'm talking about a president being romantic.

Now for those of you who don't know, the Q is a shopping channel; QVC to be exact. They were showing a line of jewelry called "Jacqueline Kennedy Reproductions". Obviously, they are copies of her jewelry. Even if you don't buy anything *snickers*, the show is interesting because of the history. A gentleman named Philip Katz, a Kennedy historian, gives the background story on each piece. This is where the romance comes in. Many of the original pieces that they've chosen to reproduce were gifts to Jackie from her husband, President Kennedy.

One thing I've learned from watching is that the man was a keeper. He seemed to remember the importance of special occasions and celebrated them with a gift of jewelry. Yes, the man knows the how to warm a woman's heart, well, one way. Anyway, one gift in particular was a gift he gave her whe she gave birth to John Jr. You remember him? handsome, sexy hunk? People magazine's sexiest man alive? more than once I believe; yeah, him. The president gave Jackie a brooch to commemorate the event. It was two strawberries, one a bit larger to represent her firstborn, daughter Caroline. The second, slightly smaller, represented her newborn son. Awww, that is so sweet! There are many more charming anecdotes like this, each one quite sentimental in my opinion.

The one anecdote that made me admire John F. Kennedy more than ever, was the one where Mr Katz mentioned that President Kennedy never took a salary while in office. As the story goes, Jackie saw some jewelry from an estate sale in a Madison Avenue Boutique. She fell in love with it and decided she had to have it. When she told her husband about it he said there was no way they could afford it. After all, he wasn't receiving a salary. Jackie was adamant that she had to have it and asked him if he couldn't take a salary for just a month or two to pay for the jewelry. He said of course he couldn't; naturally! You can't say you aren't going to take a salary and then not go through with it. He meant to stick to it.

Determined to the end, Jackie took the jewelry Joe and Rose Kennedy (JFK's parents) gave her for a wedding present and had copies made. She then took the originals, the real stuff, sold it, and used the proceeds to buy the estate jewelry. Apparently, no one knew about any of this until years later, maybe even not until after her death. It just goes to show, if a woman wants something she will get it.

But darn it all, after remembering this whole remarkable story, do you think I can remember what that jewelry looked like? No! And believe me, the curiosity is killing me now.

The point of all this and what I most admire, is the president not taking his salary. Do you think any of the candidates running now would follow his lead? Do you see President Bush who is from a relatively wealthy family as well would do it? Wouldn't it be nice if some of these enchanting qualities of the family of the Camelot administration would rub off on the leaders of the modern era?

Well, we can dream, can't we?

Speaking of being a keeper -

screen cap courtesy of Sahira, merci beaucoup!