{"id":20,"date":"2007-07-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2007\/07\/our-instructions-were-to-show.html"},"modified":"2007-07-30T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-30T07:00:00","slug":"our-instructions-were-to-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/07\/our-instructions-were-to-show.html","title":{"rendered":"“I Wore a Q-Tip into the Oval Office”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our instructions were to show up at the Northwest Appointment Gate at 8:55 AM on Friday morning. My parents had flown up from Georgia; Mrs. Feiler Faster and I had made our way down from New York. My Dad had booked us two rooms at the Hay-Adams hotel, across Lafayette Park from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, \u201cwhere nothing is overlooked but the White House.\u201d My wife had asked what she should wear. \u201cNot pants,\u201d I said, remembering Bush\u2019s admonition<\/a> that all guests to the Oval Office should be dressed appropriately. \u201cAt my age, you wear what\u2019s comfortable,\u201d my Mom responded, who wore a pantsuit. One of the first things I noticed after we passed through security was a sign that said:
\nThose not appropriately dressed and wearing the following will not be allowed to tour the West Wing: jeans, sneakers, shorts, mini skirts, t-shirts, tank tops, flip flops <\/em>
\nWe were met by an extremely charming White House aide. She led us up the drive, past \u201cPebble Beach,\u201d where the networks have their permanent cameras for stand-up, through the front door of the West Wing, which was manned by a Marine, and into what she described as a \u201cholding room.\u201d The holding room, in this instance, turned out to be the Cabinet Room<\/a>.
\nThe familiar table filled most of the room, and you could look through the windows and see the Rose Garden, which was surprisingly bereft of roses. The Charles Wilson Peale portrait of George Washington hung on one wall, with a hand-tucked-into-his-coat pose later made famous by Napoleon, and opposite was a marble bust of Washington looking like Caesar. There was a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a portrait of Eisenhower, and, oddly I thought, the bust of a non-president: Benjamin Franklin.
\n\"cabinetroom.jpg\"
\nThe chairs were by far the most telling part. Each leather chair had a brass plate on the back depicting the title of the person who sat there, like \u201cThe President,\u201d with the date he first occupied it. Josh Bolton\u2019s chair had two plaques, one for his job as head of Office of Management and Budget, another for Chief of Staff. The most plaques belonged to Cheney\u2019s chair: \u201cVice President,\u201d \u201cSecretary of Defense,\u201d and \u201cChief of Staff,\u201d with the dates he held each of those jobs. Given the problems plaguing the Attorney General, someone joked it might be time to be making a new chair.
\nThere were several other groups waiting to make their way into meet the president, and we were instructed to expect a brief period of time. At 9:30 AM, Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, arrived to accompany to us. About ten minutes to ten, we were moved to the dark lobby just outside the Cabinet Room, and a few minutes later, through the open door, into the Oval Office.
\nMy first impression was how light the room was, and how heavy the air. Part of this is an architectural trick. I renovated an apartment a few years ago and my architect talked about the power of making small, ante-rooms darker, so that the large room you enter has even more impact. That\u2019s exactly what happens when you enter the Oval Office. Given the warren of enclosed, window-less rooms you have to make your way through before you get to the Oval Office, the act of entering a room with so many windows, with an illuminated, white ceiling, and bright, almost stage lighting inside, is very dramatic. Mike Deaver was the first to relight the room, I had read, and the effect on your irises, if nothing else, is intense. Putin, upon entering, apparently uttered, \u201cOh, my God.\u201d
\nThe other source of intensity, of course, is the person entering the room. You bring a lot of the emotion with you \u2013 the nervous anxiety, the twisting of hands, the sense of history. And I wasn\u2019t coming to make a major decision, or negotiate a bill, or apply for a Supreme Court judgship. I could only imagine the emotion of some of those visitors.
\nOne of the ways I experienced the entire morning was as a boy who had grown up talking about politics around the breakfast table, studied American history, and been reading that week about the burning of the White House in 1812 and Abraham Lincoln giving speeches from the second floor. For that part of me, entering the Oval House was a thrill, and I had made the appropriate fuss. I had gotten my suit pressed, my shoes shined, and when I found out that morning that my collar was lacking a stay, I took a Q-tip, circumcised it with a nail clipper, and inserted it into my collar. That\u2019s right: I wore a Q-tip to the Oval Office.<\/p>\n


\nPresident Bush was standing on the light-colored rug that the First Lady designed<\/a>, in front the desk used by FDR and JFK. He was wearing a blue suit, a red tie, and cowboy boots. He was very shouldery, I thought, and more formal than I expected. He welcomed us to the Oval Office. I had been led to expect joking, maybe even towel-snapping. Instead, the first substantive words out of his mouth were about Iraq. We were entering the Oval Office at an important time in our history, he said, we had to have a sense of history, our actions would be judged by history. Hands were shaken, books were handed over, the president repeated some nice words about my book ABRAHAM, which had triggered the invitation<\/a>. And then, considering that he had led with seriousness, I decided to ask about his faith.
\n\"bushoval.jpg\"
\nI mentioned that I am writing a book about the Bible in America, and had been studying the influence of religion from the Pilgrims to the present, and wondered about his relationship to the text. What followed was a 20-minute conversation about his personal faith, about the relationship between church and state in America, and about religion and the Oval Office.
\nAt several points in the conversation, the president asked that specific remarks he made be kept private. I shall abide by his request. Within those bounds, I feel comfortable observing that the tenor of the conversation was about the separation of church and state in America, how a president could have personal faith but ought not impose his faith on others, how Islamic extremists press their beliefs on others and we do not. He said he was not vain enough to feel called by God but felt he should serve God.
\nLater, the topic turned to my wife, who runs a not-for-profit called Endeavor<\/a>, which supports entrepreneurs in the developing world, and which the president\u2019s commerce secretary recently praised at the White House. The president encouraged her to expand her efforts to the Palestinian territories, where he said Tony Blair would be focusing efforts on building up the economic and governmental infrastructure. With that opening, I turned the topic back to the topic of Abraham, which had brought us together, and mentioned that the interfaith movement was a century old but had not had a galvanizing moment. I wondered if he thought an \u201cAbraham Summit\u201d might help. He expressed interest in the idea, but suggested the world didn\u2019t want another speech by him or conference with little follow-up. Grassroots efforts would be more effective, he said.
\n\u201cNow I have to boot you out,\u201d he said, and we commenced the taking of pictures. As we left, he gave us some gifts for our twin daughters. When he learned our girls had just turned two, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re in the beginning innings of a long game, and the middle innings are tough.\u201d
\nAs I mentioned, I experienced the entire morning on several different levels. As an American, to be invited to the Oval Office by the president, and to be able to go with my parents and wife, was a singular privilege. As a political junkie, I was fascinated at every turn, from the planning that went into our visit to the back and forth between the president and the senator when they met, was happening on a level that I couldn\u2019t entirely untangle. Politics on this plane a multi-level game. Finally, on a human level, I would say that I did not find the president, the office, or the staff isolated, as one often hears. From his opening comments about the war to the general tone of the conversation, I would say that the president is clearly cognizant of the debate going on in the country right now.
\nLast fall, I was invited to give a speech at the First Lady\u2019s National Book Festival on the Mall. The seventy or so writers included every year are invited to the East Room for a buffet breakfast. The overwhelming impression I had during that visit is that the house really does belong to everyone. We could even sit on the sofas and eat our croissants. The Bushes, like everyone before them, are just temporary residents.
\nI had a similar feeling during my visit to the West Wing. Every room I walked into, including the Oval Office, had a depiction of George Washington. The past is omnipresent here, as is the future. Nearly every sentence out of the president\u2019s mouth had something to do with how someone before him had conducted himself in his position, or how someone later would judge his actions. I found him steeped in the weight of time. The walls in the Oval may not speak, but they surely listen.
\nAnd that\u2019s what I took away from my visit. The Oval Office is not otherworldly. It\u2019s a room, where the light is a little bit lighter, the air is a little bit heavier, and where no person, not even the president, is ever alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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