Courtesy Kevin Spear/speartoons/Creative Commons License.
Years ago, when he was trying to bolster my confidence for a sermon I was to give to the entire congregation, my Unitarian minister suggested I envision my audience their underwear. I think the idea was to calm my nerves with a mental trick to make a hundred or so people seem less intimidating with a pleasantly amusing and ridiculous scenario. But picturing the church-going crowd in their underwear? Ummmm … thanks, but no.
It’s worse in reverse. This week at Harvard School of Public Health, I paused by a large flat screen display of Larry Summers giving a talk. Watching and listening were a dozen folks scattered among many more chairs lined up theater style.
Don’t ask me what he was saying. I was completely distracted by picturing him in this scene conjured up by Ashley Parker in this New York Times article earlier this week about the laudable efforts of President Obama’s personal trainer to whip the White House staff into shape:
Some of the best gossip involved Mr. Summers himself. One day, he forgot his exercise gear and began working out — shirtless — on the treadmill. A frantic e-mail quickly made its way to the West Wing: did someone — anyone — have a shirt Mr. Summers could borrow? Mr. Strautmanis, whose office is nearby, ran one over, but the incident quickly became White House lore.
“There was a brief interval of that,” Mr. Summers confirmed, before adding, gamely, “I liked it better when I didn’t have to see how in shape some of the president’s younger aides were.”
Back at ya.
– copyright Carol Morton
Update 14 March 2011: It turns out I was watching the video feed to accommodate the overflow crowd to hear Summers speak on “Obama’s Leadership During the Financial Crises” at a HSPH leadership seminar.
