The Consequence of "Yes"

With apologies for being so unoriginal, I have to throw out my two cents on Sarah Palin. Maybe just one cent. The last thing the world needs is one more person spewing their political views all over the Internet or commenting on this candidate, in particular. I am not a political blogger and have zero aspirations to become one. I’m not politically savvy or inclined. But what I am is a woman and a mom who cares deeply about the lives of other women and other moms. Sarah Palin falls into both of these categories, and I have spent a lot of time trying to imagine what her life must be like right now.

Unless you’re Billy Rae Cyrus, I don’t think you can begin to imagine what that degree of scrutiny feels like for you and your family. I watched Palin’s young daughter slather her spit on her baby brother’s hair in front of an audience of 38 million and silently thanked God that my children’s only audience is the three people standing behind me at Walmart—and their kids are all doing something more questionable than mine. I try to imagine what it must be like for her husband—Did he sign up for this when he popped the question?—and for her daughter’s boyfriend, who must surely wince at his 15 minutes of fame (and even more so the 15 minutes that got him into all of this in the first place).

From the little I know, I like Sarah Palin as a political candidate. She seems to represent a lot of my views and articulates them enviably well. But if Sarah Palin were my friend, I’d have to ask her what she’s going to sacrifice to live out this dream. Is it worth it? It’s not so much a question of whether she can handle it. I get the feeling she could hunt down terrorists in Iraq with her older son while simultaneously nursing her younger one. But just because she can do it, just because it’s the biggest opportunity of her life that might not knock again, should she do it?

I’m not sure. I know how I would answer the question for me, as preposterous as it is to imagine myself in such circumstances. I know that I don’t have the energy to split my attention between two such monumental tasks. And though the opportunity to make history and serve as a role model for generations of girls to come is pretty heady stuff, if it kept me from being the role model to my three daughters that I so desperately want to be, I’d have to pass.

It’s not just Sarah Palin who has to answer these types of questions. On some scale, we all do. Any choice for something is a choice against something else, whether you admit that or not. Governor Palin’s meteoric rise has got people thinking and talking a lot. For me, at least this week, she's got me thinking through the consequences of all I say yes to, and asking, "Is it worth it?"