So, My Best Critic and I had a conversation about Friday's post, in which I compared Mitt Romney to Coriolanus, and included his wife Ann in the comparison, describing her as sounding like "a dowager giving instructions to the help." My good friend didn't object to the comparison regarding Mitt himself, and in fact found it interesting, but thought that I was unfair to Ann Romney. We listened to the audio together, and I stood by my assessment, while he thought it sounded like a woman defending the husband she loves in a time when he is (deservedly or not) undergoing rather brutal criticism. He asked how I would react if la Caterina would be subjected to such criticism.
Good question, right? Answer: quite possibly with a lot of anger, at best barely suppressed. And that's a near-best case scenario.
But let me pose the question that floated across my mind later: How would la Caterina react if I were under such withering fire. Answer: Even if I deserved the criticism, she'd be a Valkyrie.
So, let me eat a bit of crow here: I wasn't trying to be unfair to Ann Romney, but I concede I could very well have been. Let's make that probably was.
And, like Jonathan Darrow, I sometimes need to stop blazing arrogance in all directions, look in the mirror and say to myself "I CAN BE WRONG."
A salute, then, from my household to that of the Romney family:
"she'd be a Valkyrie"
ReplyDeleteShe'd carry you off after you die in battle?
And then pick a few off of her own.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I should have expected a comment from another old and good friend, one of very few who knows Norse mythology better than I do.
Poetic license is my only defense :)