Lancaster New Era

October 2, 2004

John Kerry Is Quite a Catch(up)

My mother was quite a piece of work. Intellectual, ambitious, loving, attractive and self-righteous as all heck. If a man possessed all those characteristics, the world would consider him quite a catch. For a woman, the search for a mate strong enough in character to appreciate a woman’s power proves significantly more difficult.

I am a single woman, not all that different from my mother. Funny and smart; sassy and outspoken – I’m a catch, right? Well, I like to think so. But perhaps in my arrogance I gave up on the notion that a man like my father – successful in his own right and comfortable with a woman of fortitude – existed in today’s world. Mom snagged the last one, darn it.

I had all but given up hope until recently, when a man entered my life and showed me I had abandoned my social life prematurely. I have come to know this man over the past year and learned that he married a bit of a handful – a woman so brash, sexy, obscenely rich, smart and devoted to social justice that she defied definition. I couldn’t respect that man more.

Unfit for command? Give me a break. Any man smart enough to marry Teresa Heinz deserves respect, honor and the White House.

Colette Shaw

Lancaster, Pennsylvania