God's Plan, Our Circus by Clay Boatright

Author:Clay Boatright [Boatright, Clay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clay Boatright
Published: 2023-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

“EVERYONE WAS REPORTING ON ME GOING TO CHURCH. It was like a Democrat in church!” said the guy on television one night in 2006.

The audience laughed while Jay Leno interviewed a senator from Illinois, some dude named Barack Obama, who’d visited Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church the day before. Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, was one of my favorites, so I watched the interview closely.

“See that guy?” I asked Carole when she walked into the room. “He’s going to be the first Black president of the United States.”

A newspaper article the next year mentioned that an information session about Obama was planned in Dallas a few nights later. I’d never attended anything like that before, but after thinking about the Leno interview, I dropped by.

The white guy from Plano was easy to spot in the room of seventy-five. Between the speaker and eavesdropping on nearby conversations, the discussions seemed less pro-Obama and more anti-Hillary. It also became clear that “information session” and “fundraiser” were the same thing.

He probably won’t win the nomination next year, much less the presidency, I thought, but he’s a player down the road. I’ll give him a couple of bucks. For the very first time, I pulled out my wallet and made a political contribution.

“I donated to his campaign,” I told Carole when I got home.

“How much?” she asked.

“Five hundred dollars,” I replied.

“Well damn!” she exclaimed. “I hope he wins.”

David, an Obama campaign volunteer, called the next day to say thanks for the contribution. He said the senator would be in town for a major fundraising lunch in a couple of months and asked if I wanted to attend.

“Sure,” I replied. “Sign me up.”

What started as seventy-five people in a small room a few months earlier now blossomed into a ballroom of a couple thousand. David invited me to join him and his wife at their table near the stage. The guest of honor arrived after everyone finished their tasteless chicken. The crowd erupted in loud applause while the Secret Service cleared a path to the stage.

When Obama finished his speech, he walked off the stage and made his way through the crowd with Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, by his side.

“Go stand over there!” David pointed to a spot between the stage and the door. “You might be able to shake his hand!”

The idea of chasing celebrities felt icky, but David’s enthusiasm was hard to ignore.

“Okay, fine. I’ll go stand over there.” Less than a minute later, I was face-to-face with Elvis himself.

“Hello, Senator. My name is Clay Boatright. It’s nice to meet you.” I said as the future president walked up.

“Hello, Clay. It’s nice to meet you as well. What do you do?” he asked.

The temptation to say “as little as possible” was huge.

“I work for the Dean Foods Company and do a lot of disability advocacy. My wife and I have three daughters, and our younger twins have severe intellectual disabilities and autism.”

“That’s great. Raising kids with disabilities takes a lot of patience,” he replied.

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