Refrigerators are those unique places in people’s homes where usually images of family and friends, shopping and to do lists, recipes and favorite sayings often appear. You can often read the intimate heart of a home by the informality of the images and sentiments placed on the outside of the refrigerator.
Thanksgiving was held in my mother’s home this year and so we spent a lot of time in my mother’s kitchen, with plenty of time to observe her refrigerator doors. These doors used to be covered with lots of photos of family and friends. This year, there has been a seed change in those images. Those typical photos of family and friends have given way to images of an important political family, a signaling of my mother’s and her husband’s still vital and passionate commitment to working class and liberal ideals and values. It warms my heart to see how genuinely and intimately they have embraced our new second-term president, his family, and his political agenda.