SHORTLY BEFORE CHRISTMAS our family was in the living room with a photographer from USA Today, taking pictures for the cover of the Life section, when the phone rang. It was Mary Kay Lazarus, my local publicist.
“We just received a phone call from the White House,” she said. “You and Keri have been invited to meet the president.”
About a week later Keri and I walked in through the doors of the White House. The White House was beautifully adorned in its Christmas finery and we were taken upstairs to meet with the president’s staff. After signing books, we were asked if we would like to go down and meet the president.
“Just like that?” I said.
The woman smiled. “Why not?”
She went down to check with President Clinton. A moment later she called up to us. “I’m sorry, Jesse Jackson just arrived with his son. They’ll be meeting for a while. But the president has invited you to be his guest in the presidential box tonight at the Kennedy Center. Then he’ll meet with you in the morning after his radio broadcast.”
We went to the Kennedy Center for a presentation of the Messiah and returned to the White House the next day, where we met with President Clinton in the Oval Office. As Keri spoke with President Clinton I could not help but be amused. Mrs. Clinton had just finished her book It Takes a Village and was about to go on book tour, and here was my wife talking with the president of the United States about what it was like to be married to an author.
That night, at a White House reception, Keri and I danced in the East Room to music played by the marine band.
“Can you believe this?” I asked Keri. “We’re dancing in the White House.”
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Since that time Keri and I have met actors, directors, authors, diplomats, political leaders, renowned journalists, religious leaders, athletes and sports legends, billionaires and business magnates.
We have eaten lunch at the home of President George and Mrs. Barbara Bush. I have shared the podium with President George W. Bush and first lady Mrs. Laura Bush. I have visited with former British prime minister John Major and eaten breakfast with Elizabeth Dole.
My grandfather’s words have come true. I have indeed walked with the royalty of this earth.
I have since considered that there might be another meaning to the words of the blessing. Perhaps what was meant in my grandfather’s blessing by “royalty” was not, as I had always assumed, the powerful and famous of this world after all, but instead, the ordinary good people of this world who had endured the refiner’s fire of loss and emerged as royal spirits.
Perhaps. I’d like to think so.
